SANJAY DHAVALIKAR RESPONDS TO A NATURE'S CALL WHILE DEREK ALMEIDA ADMIRES THE SYNERGY

Et tu Derek?
You know... very few of us in our profession can possibly dislike Derek Almeida.

He is a quiet fellow who does he job, sans ego, sans ideology, sans malice. Perhaps the only grey layer in his bebinca-like personality is a tiny sliver of diplomacy, hugging the uppermost bed.
We must admit, that we were a bit peeved when we saw his photograph in the Gomantak Times delivering a speech at a school function. Gomantak Times is the newspaper he edits.
At the cost of sounding very anti-vernacular-journo, but we have seen over the years, that most editors of vernacular newspapers in Goa (Oh barring of course Rajan Narayan now) really tend to believe, that they are in competition with Paris Hilton for space. They literally run riot publishing their own photos in newspapers they edit, to amplify their stature.

Case in point... Tarun Bharat editor Kiran Thakur. Penpricks is pretty sure, the several TB readers have developed a sore patch near the arm pit as a result of severe abrasion caused by brushing against Thakur's bristling beard (of course in a photograph published generally above the fold), when they tuck the paper under their arm, on the way home.

Given a chance, a die hard Tarun Bharat reader would surely have watched Thakur's beard grow grey steadily over the years. And Thakur's passion for publishing his own photos has been picked up by others in Tarun Bharat.
His nephew Ashok Dhond who used to be the executive editor also utilised the Satyanarayan puja ceremony to get his grin pasted more than 40/50 times for the Satyanarayan puja pull out supplement. Now a third messiah is in the making... The newspaper's chief reporter Sagar Javdekar. Oh man... you can see him marching on the streets for the cause of Marathi... or watch him deliver a stirring speech at some Adpai Mahila Vanasudharak Samiti hehehe... These guys really push matters far whenever free publicity can be had.
Oh... and then there Laxman Joshi who edited the Gomantak some years back and then the guy who followed him Sharad Karkhanis, who wore such thick black rimmed spectacles, that his intellectual calibre could have never been in any doubt.
While the former was a very adroit Sanghi sort of a personality, the latter was more of a Hitleresque, but funny demeanour. Dainik Gomantak has really seen em all, if one also accounts for the the Fieldel Castro like Narayan Athavale.
The latest incumbent (as resident editor) Sanjay Dhavalikar is more of the shirt pant types... But when it comes to getting his photograph published in his own newspaper, Sanjay is not one to be left behind. While his predecessors were steeped in the literary tradition like say Narayan Athavale or Madhav Gadkari, Sanjay has hopped on to the hot seat from the position of PRO of the Entertainment Society of Goa. Sanjay was earlier with the Navprabha and then worked as a correspondent for the Mahaashtra Times too before taking up the PRO position. Hope he doesn't mix his earlier brief with the one he holds now.
But why were we saying this? Ah... Derek... Surely he has not caught on to this trend... We surely hope not. We would really like to read him in, rather than see him around in Gomantak Times.
Due to limitations of this blog's template, we place the captions for the photos published down here, instead of sticking them under the picture itself...

SANJAY RESPONDING TO A "NATURE'S CALL": Dainik Gomantak Editor Sanjay Dhavalikar (the guy whose head's encircled... not to be mistaken for a halo hehe) speaking at a function organised by the Nature club of Zantye college, Bicholim. Well, this picture accompanies a three column story on how their own editor exhorted students to come together and fight destruction of nature in Goa by commercial forces. Come on, Sanjay... not worth a three column story, was it? Do you really think you need to push this on to your reader? Don't mess around your paper like this... You are the gen next of editors in Goa, lead by example... Break this trend set by these old foggies... Rise above it man...

ET TU DEREK?: And that there in the first photograph... Right... the one who's speaking.... That's Derek. He's speaking at the ''PVS Sarojini Madhusudan Kushe HSS, Assagao (incidentally Robin Abreu's turf... Dammit.. do we have to mention this guy everywhere?) at the inauguration of the school's wall bulletins, 'Blossoms' English Wallpaper for the students of commerce, Arts and the Vocational Stream, 'AksharGandah', the Hindi, Konkani and Marathi wallpaper for the same streams and 'Synergy' the plurilingual matrix for the Science Stream. Derek Almeida, Executive Editor 'Gomantak Times' was the chief guest and clips the ribbon to inaugurate 'Synergy'..." This bit we have quoted from the story published in the GT accompanying the picture. The story actually ends with a line like this... 'Zehra Sayed and Amey Sangodkar were efficient anchors for the morning'!?!?! Was Ashley sleeping or what? Or did he report the function? hehehe
Thankfully Derek's speech wasn't mentioned in detailed by the newspaper... but Derek, we look forward to your writing man... not your pictures...