Birthday of Sri Guru Ramdas Ji

Last Word
A male bastion falls
I
was witness to history being created in The
Tribune in 1984, when the century-old
newspaper decided to shed its all-male tradition
and allowed the first female to occupy a chair of
the horse-shoe shaped desk in the English newsroom.
Although there was no such rule in the will of
The Tribune founder, prohibiting enrolment of
women journalists, but this tradition of maintaining
an all-male
preserve had
continued ever
since the
paper’s inception
in Lahore
on February 2,
1881.
A hint of
the shape of
things to come
became evident
when Prem Bhatia took over as the Editorin-Chief
of The Tribune in 1977. While launching
the Hindi and Punjabi editions of The Tribune a
year later he brought in Renuka Nayyar as subeditor
in Dainik Tribune.
But this did not change the all-male hold of the
parent paper for another six years. Finally after
103 years of its publication, The Tribune Newsroom
opened its doors to the first lady.
A number of senior colleagues were skeptical
about the “rumour” when it first trickled in. “It
cannot be, we will have to keep a check on the
words we use,” said Varinder (name changed).
“What will happen to those adult jokes we
share after the first edition,” said a balding Chief
DONALD BANERJEE
Sub-Editor. “Yaar, it will be a bad day. Our freedom
will be in peril,” added another senior journalist
.
But for a quite a few, it meant addition of
colour in the traditional dark grey shades of the
male bastion.
Finally the day arrived. I remember it was July
6, 1984. Some enterprising youngsters who had
got wind of the impending female entry into the
newsroom, positioned
themselves
near the
reception. They
waited for two
hours, then decided
to pack up.
As they strolled
towards the gate
a tall girl in single
plait wearing
a salwar kameez
walked past them.
“A Plain Jane”, they said in unison.
V.N.Narayanan escorted the damsel to the
News Editor’s room. All eyes were focused on the
female probationary sub-editor who appeared
nervous as she took her first step into the English
newsroom. “Meet Devi...” said the News Editor.
As the ‘first lady’ occupied a chair on the regional
desk, the wall came crashing down on a 103-yearold
male bastion.
A stag party was held that evening to mark
the last day of male independence. It was an
evening of back-slapping and ribald jokes to mark
the end of an all-male era of The Tribune.
50 Punjab Advance
October 2015