Instant History: A Memoir

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Instant History is a brilliant insight into our recent history. A treasure trove for all those who believe that journalists write the first draft of history, this is an honest perspective on various issues in the context of many geographical complexities, political realities and social dichotomies Narrated through short pieces and snippets, it unveils several incidents and exposes ground realities that afflict politics, bureaucracy and even journalism Moreover serving a stice of history, it documents changes India has witnessed across the last quarter of the preceding century, providing insights into the history of public administration.

Anecdotal, humorous and often caustic, Instant History is a fabulous work on Indian journalism and politics recounted by a senior journalist with an insider view of affairs.

Anil Maheshwari served for about five decades in journalism and retired from the Hindustan Times as a Special Correspondent

very journalist has two sets of stories. They send the boring ones for publication in their newspaper in return for the pay cheque. The interesting ones they reserve for the memoirs they will write after the powers have stopped paying salary, free from the inhibitions of propriety and proprietor. Memoirs are written during the years of liberation from compulsions and compromise that usually leave a journalist's life a few apples short of a picnic.

A picnic is a good metaphor for journalism. There is food and drink for the repast, not gluttony. There is the company of friends and the occasional attention of spectators. There are ants at every picnic-red ants, and they bite. If they didn't, there wouldn't be any story to tell. Ants do not bite out of malice, they do so as part of their existence. It is a necessity, not a pleasure. An ant bite is karma.

A good journalist is nippy but never poisonous. There are some in the profession who snake their way up the ladder, dripping venom at every rung, but they are very few. Their spleen is more self-destructive than destructive. They are best left alone.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages