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GOING NATIVE

Caught on camera

Photo: V. V. Krishnan

On the ball Chris Morris is an ardent fan of the food at Saravana Bhawan

It is Mark Tully’s fault. Today Chris Morris is a South Asia correspondent because he heard Tully crackle over the airwaves as he talked about the siege of the Golden Temple. Two decades later, Morris is himself the voice and face of South Asia for the BBC.

With Delhi High Court making homosexuality legal, it’s a frantic morning at the BBC office. Reporters rush around with phone attached to ear. As the South Asia Correspondent, Morris dashes from television studio to radio recording booth, putting on and taking off his coat. The frenzy doesn’t let up for an hour. As soon as the pressure eases, he appears for the interview, apologising profusely for the delay.

Morris moved to Delhi only 18 months ago but has been covering South Asia for well over a decade. Born to an academic family in the United Kingdom, Morris first came to India in the ’80s, having just finished his studies. He travelled to Kashmir, writing a few articles along the way. After joining the BBC, one of his first assignments was covering the conflict in Sri Lanka. Here he met his wife, born to Indian parents but raised in Sri Lanka. She studied at Stella Maris College, Chennai. He says with customary good humour, “Recently we went to the polling booth at Stella Maris and even took a photograph there!”

Work then took him to Europe. He repeatedly tried to return to Asia, applying for different jobs. But had to wait for nearly 12 years. Morris has dodged teargas shells during the rath yatra in Ayodhya. He has been expelled from Sri Lanka for his reportage. But today, the biggest challenge is getting the Indian story on air. Pakistan, he says, makes news with its daily bombings and frequent assassinations.

India’s slow rise to power is more difficult to chronicle. With a finger on India’s pulse, Morris is quick to point out how India and the perception of India have changed in the last decades. “India used to be quirky. It used to be all about tea and cricket. Look at London, half the companies are owned by Indians. Today, it is a rising global power.”

The recent Mumbai attack was a challenge. He explains that while covering stories in Lebanon and Gaza, one expects the bullets. But in downtown Mumbai, it was unfathomable to be caught in gunfire. “There was this disconnect between what one is used to and what was happening,” he explains.

Having lived in Istanbul, Morris doesn’t rush to criticise the driving and traffic jams in Delhi. With an upturned chuckle he says, “I just cut off everyone else on the road.” Instead, it’s the “bureaucracy and hierarchy” that disappoint and annoy him. But the change in Delhi over the years, reveals this erstwhile stand-up comedian, is what he finds “extraordinary”, be it the increase in the number of restaurants or the growth of the metro.

As for now, there is another story to hunt down. It’s just another day at the office for Chris Morris.

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