The news of death as exaggeration!

Whatrsquos the first response to news of death for loved ones Shock then grief Whatrsquos a newspersonrsquos response to death of a public figure from a field they surveyWorkedup thoughts of writingeditingresearchingdelegating lining up the deceasedrsquos former associates for their condolencesanecdoteshellip Distance between the above measured against a dangling deadlinemdashdepending on timeplace of death In 2002 as a cub reporter in Bombaymdashhaving learnt of filmmaker Nishit Sharan among others in a car crash I wished aloud how this couldrsquove taken place closer than Delhi making it easier to reportverify My boss diagnosed this ailment as journalismmdashthat I may find hard to recover from eventuallyUnless the journalist is employed with the New York Times NYT A rare newspaper where the work of investigatingruminating over the accomplished dead is handed over to a fullfledged department of specialised lsquoobituary writersrsquoA profession yoursquod otherwise consider ldquomacabre one step away from the undertakerrdquo Given that journalism itself privileges meeting people while this is simply the opposite But then again an obituary involves ldquoa sentence or two about death All of it is about the life So itrsquos not depressing at allrdquoThese are two perspectives from professional obituary writers in Vanessa Gouldrsquos delightful documentary Obitmdashset in NYTrsquos said editorial department As underwatched films on journalism go itrsquos the most realisticoriginal take on a print newsroom I know less dramatic than Andrew Rossirsquos Page One in the same settingTogether over years the obit department has written over 1700 ldquoadvancerdquo notices for public figures who are still aroundmdashstoring them with other precious data in a library they call the ldquomorguerdquo In the case of young achieveraviator Elinor Smith her fully composed obituary lay in NYT lsquomorguersquo for 80 years until she died at 98 What exactly is an obituary anywaymdashbesides an ldquoeloquent sendoffrdquo Margalit Fox from NYTrsquos obit team says a euphemism for someone dead is that ldquotheyrsquore history An obit captures a person at the precise point that they become historyrdquoCouldnrsquot have been put better Know this from having written profiles or biographical sketches of people I meet And yet there is an incomparably reassuring finality to an obit given your impressionsassessment canrsquot change from hereonmdashfor betterworseThe praise isnrsquot premature The subject remains incapable of disappointing you after all Or surprising you further being no more a workinprogress This is the end The writerrsquos only friend the endAlso learnt this from writing more obituaries in the pandemic year 2020 than all years put together An exercise so mentally exhausting that I lost count of tributesdead after a pointmdashAmar Singh Basu Chatterjee Nishikant Kamath SP Balasubrahmanyam Saroj Khan Irrfan Jagdeep Rishi Kapoor Sushant Singh RajputhellipBut since this is news outside of inevitable elegy the obituary is about facts NYT stipulates that in the second paragraph the writers mention the cause of the subjectrsquos death but more importantly name the person who confirmed the eventWhy In 2003 based on a sendoff that appeared in the late edition of a European daily NYT ran an obit of actorballerina Katherina Sergava to learn that she was alivemdashin fact being nursed at a Manhattan hospital down their streetOnce writing a piece on the film Naya Daur upon its rerelease strangely I had the image of Bimal Roy in my head while typing the name of the filmrsquos director as ldquolaterdquo BR Chopra on the computermdashdeclaring him prematurely deceased in printBRrsquos son Ravi was naturally furious demanding an apology although beyond the levelproportion of the crime I submitted my sincere regrets to the editor He said hersquos killed off more Which is true Most journalists in the long run end up with a wrong deadstoryWorse is confirming deaths Where again Irsquom bestowed with the unique ignominy of calling up the great staractor Pran who was alive to check on if he was He picked up the landline Guessing my purpose rightly blasted back ldquoAll you care for is if Irsquom deadrdquo I hung upSimilar episode occurred with the amazing Amrish Puri who concealed his health issues when asked to confirm Which is wholly understandablefair Only making the correspondent feel like a despicable ambulance chaserWorst is the rumour of death Or as Mark Twain erroneously bumped off in his lifetime famously remarked ldquoReports of my death are greatly exaggeratedrdquo Such has been the appalling case with Indian cinemarsquos greatest acting maestros Dilip Kumar 98About a decade ago I was convinced there was a miscreant at the desk of a Delhibased newspaper I worked for who would cook up a rumour of Dilip Saabrsquos demise periodically sending us into a tizzyHow he knew better sitting in Connaught Place is beyond me Only the number of such aholes grew over the yearsWith false alarms over his health circulating every time the thespian falls sick Rumours of death are obviously received differently by loved onesmdashhis wife Saira Banu having to publicly deny them each time Itrsquos not the fakenews you want to hearSad what she has to go through As she had to again this week May YusufDilip Saab live for a 100 years more We know that wonrsquot happen The wish remains Rumours must die regardlessMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper