Sitcom stars: Islamabad has its own Brady Bunch

A sitcom could easily be based on our office in Islamabad. One sub-editor performs his best while doing the opposite of what he is told. Another has eyebrow-raising health tips for us every day.

There’s an individual who, I strongly believe, has walked rightout of an encyclopaedia. If you ask him to pass you a paper, you are at risk of information overdose: “The paper was an invention of the Han Dynasty around 105 AD, after which it travelled to the West through the Middle East and was then manufactured in Spain in the 10th century.”

The staff includes a fire-breathing force in Ferragamo pumps, someone who speaks English in a genuine Borat accent and a man who talks only in code. Despite these diverse personalities, the office is one big family.

It is a family that we have seen grow - from a group of eight people sitting in a makeshift newsroom with a leaking air conditioner and pontificating on the ethics of journalism to a team printing its first page. Some farewells happened and others were welcomed.

But strangely enough, all of them gelled and the small bureau of eccentric ‘sitcom stars’ swelled. During the long newspaper dummy run, frustrations ran high and morale wavered. Reporters calling government officials from The Express Tribune – a non-existent newspaper then – were brushed off even though they kept assuring them the paper would be in the market soon.

Stories would come at a snail’s pace and would need to be rewritten to a point where we would see leads and captions in our dreams. At moments like these, it was the team and the abundant quirkiness it supplied that kept things going. We made fun of the stories we edited, especially the text by wire agencies.

“Commuters irked by shabby vans”, “People irked by high gas bills”, “Residents irked by garbage heaps”. We were so irked that we banned the word.

However, at the end of each day, we would print our finished page, fix a sentence or a headline and beam with immense pride.

The day the newspaper was launched, frenzy and exhilaration swept the office. And now the newspaper is one year old – it’s unbelievable. The newsroom where ideas and theories took baby steps towards the dream of delivering the best newspaper to the country now constantly rings with the sound of telephones, faxes and printers.

Our team has matured – seasoned, rather – with the rigorous grind of the newsroom. The ideals of journalism, however, have become slightly chafed by the reality, but the journey to recognising this reality was a memorable one, thanks to our unique editors and reporters. Whatever else some of us may go on to do, whoever else we may meet, this is the team, with all its idiosyncrasies, we will remember and cherish.

And as members of the launch team, we will always carry a collective sense of entitlement to this newspaper. Because if there is one thing this newspaper has done, is has made us feel like one.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 12^th,  2011.