Dr Prakash Hindustani-A Story of a Hopeless Optimist and Journalist

My Story

“Go as far as you can see. When you will reach there you will see further” J.P. Morgan

I followed the above principle and took strange and bizarre decisions in my life. I left a government job and became a journalist at one third of the salary. Even in journalism, from daily to weekly, from newspaper to TV, from TV to web journalism, from web back to TV, the journey and switchovers continued. The bright side was that I got a chance to work across multiple platforms, from print to TV to web media. (Photo- Receiving ABP News Award from Dr Kumar Vishwas)

One thing which I never gave too much thought to during these transitions was my salary. The paradox was that at one time, I was the highest paid editor of my city, and at other time I was a journalist who had switched jobs at two thirds of the salary. I didn’t think twice in shifting cities also and the result was that I got a chance to meet and work with a variety of friends in many media organisations across multiple cities. (Photo- Addressing delegates at Parde Ke Peeche. The panel includes Mr Gulzaar)

Being active on social media and interacting with thousands of friends across the world has exposed me to the new world of new media. In fact, it went beyond as social media gave me a new identity and respect too. 

I was happy to know that ABP News considered my blog one of the ten best Hindi blogs in the world and felicitated me for the same. It was a wonderful experience meeting Asian bloggers in blogging conferences at Bhutan and Sri Lanka while it was altogether unique experience to see the world of Hindi at the International Hindi Conference at New Jersey. (Photo-Presenting the book on PM Narendra Modi to Hon'ble External Affairs Minister Ms Sushma Swaraj)

During the long journey in journalism, my experience ranged from proof reading to editorial writing, and from launching newspaper to city bureau of a TV channel. 

I continued to learn from eminent personalities and mentors ranging from Rajendra Mathur to Rahul Barpute, Abhay Chajlani, Dharamveer Bharti, Vishwanath Sachdev, Ganesh Mantry, Surendra Pratap Singh, Kanhaiya Lal Nandan, Vidya Nivas Mishra, Shravan Garg, Ved Pratap Vaidik and Narendra Kumar Singh. 

It was certainly an honour to be in the limelight for bringing satellite channel efficiency to city’s cable channel and adding entertainment page to an evening daily at Indore. (Photo- Addressing audience at Indore. Ms Sumitra Mahajan, Hon'ble Lok Sabha Speaker is in the first row)

After working with renowned publications like Nai Duniya, Dainik Bhaskar, Navbharat Times, and Chautha Sansar, I still feel that the kind of journalism we started at webduniya.com has been a major milestone in my career. 

Few years back, I decided to obtain a doctorate in web journalism and was awarded the degree in a span of five and half years. Pursuing a post graduate degree in journalism after a gap of many years (of post graduation in commerce) was also an experience in itself.(Photo- Rutgers University, NJ, USA)

After three decades of my media journey, my opinion about news has become different. For example to me, every news is positive. Actually news is news in my view. It makes no sense to label it positive or negative. 

If news of murder, theft and rape appears in media, it only shows that positivity is coming down in our society. It also alerts the society to what is happening.

As far as freedom of press is concerned, I believe it is freedom from ownership of media institutions. Those days have gone when the real owner of the media was the reader or audience. Today market owns the media. I feel words like ‘Global’ and ‘All India’ have very much lost their meaning. This is the age of multiple voices (or pluralism) and everything is local after all. The news of the village is local for the village, the news of Delhi is local for Delhi and news of New York is local for New York. (Photo- Presenting the book on PM Modi to Hon'ble Minister of Water Resources Ms Uma Bharati)

In my view, people in cities are more sensitive. I also feel that our politicians are actually very intelligent people. I believe nothing is priceless in the times we live in.

I also feel that only nature is god. Nature is also the greatest doctor, artist, scientist, and teacher which always shows the way to us. Nothing created by nature is without a purpose and finally I would like to say that our world is becoming a better and better place to live.

(English translation and Title by Dr Amit Nagpal)

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Profile

Prakash Hindustani is a pioneer of Hindi web journalism. He was the Founding Editor of first Hindi language web portal www.webdunia.com. He is a reknowned journalist, Blogger and social media activist. He has a masters degree in journalism from Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism and Communication, Bhopal and has also obtained his Ph.D. in Journalism from the prestigious Devi Ahilya University, Indore.

Prakash has more than 30 years of experience in Hindi journalism across print, television and internet media platforms. For most part of his career he has been associated with The Times of India group (Dharmyug, Navbharat Times) and also worked with, Dainik Bhaskar and Naidunia. He was associated as Bureau Chief with leading national and regional TV channels such as Sahara Samay, and GNN Satellite Channel. 

His website www.prakashhindustani.com has been running successfully for the last 14 years, promoting Hindi journalism and journalists. Simultaneously, he has been blogging for the last 6 years at www.prakashhindustani.blogspot.in. Prakash has been awarded the Top 10 Hindi bloggers in the country award by ABP News, and honored with'Parikalpana SAARC Shikhar samman in Thimphu, Bhutan.