Life beyond news: The joy of missing out is more real than you think

In 2013, my boss at India Today, Kamlesh Kishore Singh, narrated an incident that divided the entire newsroom into two groups. The first group was amused by the story but believed it. The second group, which I led, thought it was a fictional story told by a master storyteller just to illustrate that there is life beyond news and politics.

The story was about his encounter back in 1999 with a big businessman when he was travelling for work by air. The businessman was surprised to see tributes in a magazine for former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, likely advertised by the Congress on his death anniversary. He expressed shock and grief over Rajiv Gandhi’s death, which he came to know about only after seeing the tributes during the flight. He praised the late prime minister and asked Kamlesh sir when and how he had died.

The crux of the story: In 1999, a journalist met a businessman who didn’t know that Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991.

We were surprised, even shocked, and a section of the newsroom didn’t believe our boss. They dismissed it as a story told with a purpose to educate the growing army of digital journalists that life does, in fact, exist beyond the din of news, politics and New Delhi. As a rookie journalist, I was one of the people he seemed to be addressing.

Many years have passed since the veteran editor narrated that incident, and yet I didn't believe it was true in the literal sense, thinking how a businessman could be so oblivious that he didn't know about the tragic death of a former prime minister. It simply looked insanely impossible to me. But my belief changed recently.

A couple of weeks ago, when the Israel-Iran conflict was at its peak, I was asked by a train friend (a term Mumbaikars would know) about something he had noticed while returning from Bengaluru. He said he had spotted several large Qatar Airways planes at the airport and was told they were stranded because Qatar’s airspace was closed.

Then, he dropped a bomb on me, much like that businessman might have done to Kamlesh sir. He asked, ‘Why was Qatar’s airspace closed?’ I explained the situation to him. But then he asked another question: ‘Which countries are fighting?’ I replied, ‘Iran and Israel.’

Then he murmured, ‘Okay, okay... then why was Qatar’s airspace closed if the conflict is between Iran and Israel?’

And just like that, we arrived at Dadar station, where we both got off to head to work like most Mumbaikars, who end up at Dadar even if they don’t actually work there, since all rail lines converge at the most famous railway station in Mumbai.

My train friend is a young engineer working at a robotics company. He’s doing absolutely fine in life without knowing which countries are fighting, just like the businessman who didn’t know Rajiv Gandhi had died several years ago.

Neither the businessman, who didn’t know about Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, nor my engineer friend, who missed the geopolitical context of a major conflict, had missed anything essential in life.

In hindsight, I now believe the story that Kamlesh sir narrated more than a decade ago. It wasn’t just a story. It was something he had genuinely encountered.

One might say they were experiencing the joy of missing out on things that didn’t make a major difference in their lives. After my interaction with my friend, I was reminded that there is life beyond news, current affairs and politics. And some of us, news wallahs like me in particular, would do well to remember that.