Jagmohan Singh Barhok
I had mentioned in the beginning of this series that writer were not at all remunerated or suitably remunerated for the effort involved in late 1960s & early 1970s .Only the ‘Select Few’ or the ‘Lucky Few’ were paid handsomely. Some of the renowned writers were entertained out of the way & also suitably remunerated for rubish nay distasteful stuff because of their proximity with political & media bigwigs.I stopped contributing to a Punjabi daily because one of their employees wanted some favours.He also did not publish some of my articles.I was under transfer & subsequently left Jalandhar in 1994 for Chandigarh.I wanted to bring the fact into the notice of the editor but later thought it would create unpleasantness.I never contributed to the paper again since July 1994, although I earlier remained associated with the daily since 1971.
In 1998, another gentleman who was reportedly an assistant editor in Dainik Tribune asked me to entertain him at the local Press Club. For me, it was too small a thing, but being a bank officer, it was not possible for me to entertain him immediately. He wanted it at the earliest. Resultantly, he too started holding back my write ups .I began contributing to the Tribune Group since November 1979 until 2000.I was paid for all published articles, excepting those published in Dainik Tribune including some photographs during his incumbency in 1998-99 as ‘magazine editor’ .I neither expressed dissatisfaction or annoyance nor asked the management to make payment towards the published articles as I was transferred to a village branch in 1999 . I never contributed to the paper again in life. However, I continued writing articles for The Tribune until 2000, most of these appearing in The Tribune Sunday Reading. I later contributed to some Glam magazines & was handsomely paid for as my articles were informative, interesting and suitably spiced & garnished with high definition unbelievable photographs. In Nutshell my experience as a Journalist with most publishers has been enjoyable throughout, barring a few ‘black sheep’.
