पद्म पुरस्कार और पत्रकार

टीजेएस जॉर्ज

इस साल के पद्म पुरस्कारों की सूची में सिर्फ दो पत्रकारों के नाम हैं। कॉलम्निस्ट टीजेएस जॉर्ज और देश की पहली महिला न्यूज़ फोटोग्राफर होमाई वयारवाला(Homai Vyarawala)। पुरस्कारों की सूची में राजनेता भी एक ही हैं। सूची में कलाकार, संगीतकार, अभिनेता वगैरह हैं, पर स्टार पत्रकार नहीं हैं। शायद इसकी एक वजह यह है कि राडिया टेप सूची में करीब आधा दर्जन पूर्व पद्म-अलंकृतों के नाम हैं। राष्ट्रीय पुरस्कारों के लिए यह गौरव की बात नहीं। 25 जनवरी को इन पुरस्कारों की घोषणा होने के पहले हवा में अनेक नाम तैर रहे थे। वह सब हवा में ही रह गया। 



बहरहाल जिन्हें पुरस्कार मिला उन्हें बधाई। दोनों के बारे में जो जानकारी मिली है वह रोचक है। ऐसे लोगों को पुरस्कार देते वक्त व्यवस्थाएं भूल जातीं हैं। टीजेएस जॉर्ज की फोटो तो दिखाई पड़ जाती है और उनका लिखा भी पढ़ने को मिलता है। वे किसी ज़माने में प्रतिष्ठित पत्रिका एशिया वीक से जुड़े रहे। पर होमी वयारवाला का नाम शायद बहुत से लोगों को याद नहीं रहा होगा। 


98 वर्षीय होमी वयारवाला का नाम 2009 में सुनाई पड़ा था जब उन्होंने अपनी फियेट कार बेचकर नैनो खरीदी थी। एक वैबसाइट में मुझे उनसे जुड़ी यह पोस्ट मिली। आप पढ़ें रोचक है।


INDIA: Woman photographer, 96, sells Fiat to buy Nano

. VADODARA, Gujarat / The Hindustan Times / PTI / March 26, 2009 A 96-year-old 'first woman press Photographer' Homai Vyarawala staying in the city, has sold her 55-year-old original Fiat car for buying Tata's Nano car launched yesterday. Vyarawala said that she has sold her Fiat car to a vintage car lover in Mumbai after she found it difficult to get it repaired. She said that the Fiat car was imported from Italy 55 years ago and was brought to India through sea route. Homai Vyarawala, India's first woman press photographer.Vyarawala, a 'first woman press photographer' has clicked photographs of prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Morarji Desai and other dignitaries and foreign dignitaries visiting the country. Her album contains photographs clicked by her. Vyarawala said, "I will book Nano car whenever its registration begins in the city and wait for my turn to get the car." The allotment of car is to take place by draw and she is hopeful of emerging luckier in getting this car, so that she could drive the car. "She, however, made it clear that she is not in favour of approaching Ratan Tata to get this car out of turn. She has been staying alone in her residence in the Nizampura locality of the city. Copyright: HT Media Ltd.

इनके बारे में एक और पुरानी पोस्ट देखें-

Lucky with 13, will ‘Dalda’ get lucky at 96?

30 July 2009

She is India’s first woman photojournalist. In the 1940s and ’50s, her sari-clad figure is said to have been a familiar figure in Delhi, bicycling from assignment to assignment. She was paidone rupee (2 cents) for each of her first eight pictures published in The Bombay Chronicle in 1938.
Today, Homai Vyarawalla is 96 years of age. She was born in 1913. She met husband-to-be Maneckshaw when she was 13. Her first car’s licence plate was “DLD 13″. She sold her 1955 Fiat, her partner for 55 years, two months ago to lay her hands on the world’s cheapest car, the Tata Nano.
Tata Motors put her name on a priority list for the delivery of the car. Central Bank of India sent its clerk to collect the deposit amount of Rs 95,000. The first Tata Nano was delivered to a customer on July 17.
Ms Vyarawalla, who lives in Baroda, waits in eager anticipation:

“I stay alone and do everything on my own. I get things for myself from the market, and it is easier when you have a car. It is good on the company’s part which realised my urgency and came forward to offer it.”

Ms Vyarawalla still takes a few pictures, but as she said in a2006 interview:

“I am busy getting old. Though I like to take general photographs of streets and common people, I am not into political photography in a milieu where dignity and discipline are no longer a virtue.”

Photograph: Homai Vyarawalla poses with her Speed Graphic Pacemaker Quarter Plate camera (courtesy Frontline)