My Space - Anil Emage

Life without a compass

The Chinese invented the compass as early as 200BC. A simple instrument to show you which way the North lies. One end of the needle is often marked `N’ for north, or colored in some way to indicate the direction.

Between 1295 and 1302, the Italians invented the compass card, marked with 32 points of direction. This made the job of explorers much easier. For the pre –compass era explorers, life was more difficult, dangerous and less predictable. But, of course the new discoveries must have been more joyful to them and their fruits of labor gifted seeds of inspiration for the later, compass carrying explorers.

My first ever exploration in life happened as a freelance reporter for a magazine published from Wayanad. The very first job I was assigned was to go to a village called Chekadi, hitherto unseen, unheard by the media and which offered a lot of interesting case studies and research possibilities. Nature must have taken special care and planning to make the hamlet entirely alienated from the outer world. Three sides the wild forest formed a formidable wall and the only approachable side was blocked by the river Kabani, resembling an untamed often violent daughter of the wild.

I take this opportunity, not to talk about my reporting experiences, but about the exploration I did in the landscape of journalism. I never got any training in media, but jumped into the arena without a compass. Since I was not trained, I didn’t have any mental frame regarding the job at hand. With enthusiasm I explored all possibilities of print media, from reporting, photography, designing, page layout and editing. It was a great learning experience and the result was an exclusive investigative report from the border of Wayanad. Not a single journalist has ever touched the topic so far, and I was happy to see the rapid results. The Human Rights Commission has taken my report as a social issue worth considering and called the editor and I for a sitting. The media too started publishing stories about the village. The media too started publishing stories about the village. Even after 14 years, Chekadi still is a hot news for the media in Wayanad

I have touched my hands on whatever I liked doing. Most of the times, without a compass. But the joy was great. Each creation , be it a photograph, a design, a training session, developing ideas for stories and novels, leading a nomadic life teaching children and youth…everything was based on first experiencing, then pondering over it, then developing strategies and then implementing, the starting point is the journey I decided to set out. A life without a compass. But it doesn’t mean that, I am aimless and go after everything that comes or jumps across the muddy track. I simply love to explore without a compass. It is  adventurous, rewarding, educative and creative.