Kerala   

Forever a journalist

“I might bring out a reportage on Sunderbans, where 10 lakh people survive in 54 islands, which are not there in the Indian maps.”

French writer Dominic Lapierre talks about his first passion, journalism, to Anand Haridas.

French writer Dominic Lapierre prefers to be a journalist. Even after, “writing three great books on India, which I am told are sort of cult books here,” he said as he returned after a brief interactive session with his readers at the DeeCee Books in Kochi last week.

He was here to promote the new edition of his work O Jerusalem.

He tried to find how an ordinary man lived in erstwhile Soviet Union, how the gas tragedy wrecked lives at Bhopal, and how people survived the hostile environment of a Kolkata slum. So which experience is fulfilling for him, running a story in a mainstream news publication or bringing out a book? “They are complementary, like television and film. News story will be forgotten, but books will be there for generations.”

The experience that Mr. Lapierre had in erstwhile Soviet Union along with his photographer Jean-Pierre Pedrazzini and his wife became the book Once Upon A Time In The Soviet Union. The couple did the first series of stories about the Soviet Union from inside the Iron Curtain. They profile five Soviet citizens as they drove across the Communist country. “We chose the subjects. So chances of the Soviets planting stories about them were ruled out,” he said.

Mr. Lapierre loves going back to his stories. There he found many stories that could have been told. But he chose not to. In fact, the Soviet government had yielded to Mr. Lapierre’s request to have a Soviet journalist accompany the team.

“We were careful not to hurt Slava (Stanislav Ivanivich Petoukhov – a reporter with Komsomolskia Pravda). But eventually, I think I did.” The Russian secret police realised that the French duo had visited politically-sensitive places. Even though Slava published an article condemning the behaviour of Mr. Lapierre and Mr. Pedrazzini, he was sent to Siberia.

“I later met him and we reconciled. He died four years ago. His daughter cried after reading my book.” Recollecting past is Mr. Lapierre’s strength. Yes, he would love to go back, drive along those 14,000 km again. And probably catch up with those five people, whose profiles he published in Paris Match.

What links him to India is the abundance of goodness and readiness to help each other.

And what does he feel on seeing the new India trying to catch up with their Western counterparts in aggression? “Of course I applaud that change. Because I believe the basic nature of India is not going to change. It is in their genes.”

Just before he signed off, Mr. Lapierre reiterated his connections with India. “I might bring out a reportage on Sunderbans, where 10 lakh people survive in 54 islands, which are not there in the Indian maps.”

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

UDF clears Jacob group’s re-entry
ISRO turns down offer
Next issue
Need to promote paddy farming to check price rise
Forever a journalist
ENGAGEMENTS
Today at Sabarimala
Mannam Jayanthi
On a high alert against naxal threat
Campus notes
Twin delights
Another ‘special’
Starry occasion
Holiday crowd
UDF clears Jacob’s entry
Treat for film buffs
Proud moment for trainee officers
Alappuzha coast still in tsunami shadow
Sudhakaran deplores bid to disrupt meeting
Bank introducing biometric ATM
Tracing a barber’s fortunes
Sudhakaran should quit, says UDF
Terror plot foiled
5 killed in quarry accident
‘Streamline LPG supply’
Campus Notes

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu