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Ethics served for lunch

Media man Tarun Tejpal shares his life's mantra over a succulent meal

PHOTO: RAJEEV BHATT

FOOD-TIME Tarun Tejpal enjoying a leisurely lunch at China Garden

A "family neurosis", or more precisely, wife's disdain, prevents Tarun Tejpal from visiting five-star hotels for dining out. His inclination for a "stand-alone eatery" leads him to China Garden in Greater Kailash area of New Delhi. He dislikes "entering into the whole opulence game (of hotels)" and prefers "cosier, more intimate" venues, he explains. Tejpal finds the ambience of China Garden a tad "kitty-partyish" but wholeheartedly approves of the food. Neither a cook nor a "foodie", but an "ice-cream fiend", he takes pure delight in the loo phai kut and fish with black olive carefully picked from the menu. His first request at the restaurant is but a glass of cold drink filled with ice.

His book, "Alchemy of Desire" has been doing well, especially in Europe. He has only recently returned from Rome where the book was launched in Italian, he shares. Tejpal has compliments to shower on Italian men, who his daughters have found"garma garam". He says he loved the ice creams there and was awed by the Colosseum.

Tejpal, we all know, has seen a long spell of turbulent times. CBI raided his office, a series of court cases are against him and a national government was once opposed to him. Allegedly, his life was on the line too. From life, a relaxed Tejpal at China Garden says he has learnt "shit happens... cards are dealt out to you randomly and you deal with it as honourably as you can."

During lunch Tejpal moves from the oratorical to the chatty. He clearly knows how to convince his listeners about his passions.

A pioneer of sting journalism, both admired and reviled for his means, he says, "ethics is not a static game." He agrees to be ethical is to be self-reflective but to him ethics in journalism is, "fairly complex and has to be squared off against legal, bureaucratic and social conduct."

In the six years since he introduced sting journalism to India through the portal tehelka.com and now through his weekly, Tehelka, he feels that his experiences have made him reflect on what should and should not be done. In India, he finds that most sting-journalism is "mock-ups".

"The situations are simulated and because of this the possibility of misuse is very great."

The flak he received from certain media and political quarters, after Operation West End, has cautioned him. He warns of the use of money in sting operations. Today, Tehelka tries to conduct all its stings without money. Tejpal says he and his editorial team decide on "how much deception is to be used on a story-to-story basis."

Public Interest

Allowing an occasional glimpse of a greying ponytail, he asserts, "The heart of journalism has to be public interest". Sting operations, he believes, serve public interest but they can, however, be easily misused for voyeuristic and titillating reasons. A commitment to public interest should create a "Mediasaur, a creature with teeth big enough to bite and with legs large enough to stand". Tejpal emphatically says, "Never ever should the right to regulate media be given to those in power." He agrees, "truth is relative, but truth is truth." He concedes that in journalism, "of course, there is fallibility but you have to do everything with humility and integrity."

When the food arrives, Tejpal descends from the soapbox to join the dining table. He cuts and slices and chews with neat, deft movements. He says in the 80s, journalism was not about "glamour or money", as it is today. His colleagues would say, "One day we will earn Rs.5,000, what will we do with that?"

Disappointed that there is no mango ice cream, he asks for a single scoop of chocolate and vanilla ice cream. Relishing the food and dessert, he says he is a "literary animal by self-training", and describes writing "Alchemy of Desire". In 2002 when life was hardship, "the tone of the book came with great clarity" and after that, he says, "the book sang in my head." He says the tone, "allowed me to tell an intimate story without forgetting the bigger issues." He wanted to, "capture the teeming quality of India and to capture that without caricaturing it." "The only test of a book is time". He hopes his book will pass the test.

As the stir-fry vegetables and succulent chops rapidly vanish, he talks of his dear Malayali friend O.V. Vijayan. He admires Vijayan not just for his drinking capacity but for his belief, "books refine us."

It was lunch with a refined man.

NANDINI NAIR

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