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| In line for tickets |
| Wednesday September 30, 2009 |
| Beijing, 8 pm local Time: The Media centre is restless. At least 400 of us are crowded at the Media Centre hotel, waiting impatiently to get our hands on the all-important entry pass for tomorrow's parade. There's no clarity on who's in, who's out for the parade, billed as the greatest show on earth! It's already dinner time in China, and officials manning the reception desks for journalists are themselves in a fix. There's no word from their bosses and they can't leave without giving us hacks something--either the cards or deny entry! Hridayesh managed to shoot an interesting soft story while I met Indian Embassy officials--all off the record. Then both of us reconnected to shoot for the days news story. Have uplinked footage, standups and emailed the scripts before writing this. The suspense is not exactly killing me but is making me nervous since all traffic in areas around the Tiananmen Square and the Chang An Avenue is already closed. Sitting here inside the Media Centre, I have a nagging, if trivial worry: will we get a taxi back to the hotel? And more importantly, will we be able to come to the function tomorrow in view of the traffic restrictions? But more seriously, I do not know why the Chinese government is so paranoid about a simple matter as giving access to a parade? |
A student of conflicts, insurgencies and wars, Nitin Gokhale has spent 26 years reporting on military and militants from various hostile fields like India's north-east, Kashmir valley, the Kargil war, China and Sri Lanka, among others. He's currently NDTV's Defence and Strategic Affairs Editor.
