Sunday, December 24, 2000		Scene Stealers

A promising writer

THERE'S a lot more to Sharda Kaushik than being a pleasant-faced wife of an IPS officer. A couple of years back, Sharda, the mother of two grown up daughters, was passionately involved in Declaring love in Four Languages, with columnist Khushwant Singh as her co-author. Day in and day out, Sharda strived to capture the nuances of the sentiment of love as capsuled in the writings of great Hindi poets. The book was a runaway success and Sharda was glad that it had happened to her.

But to those who thought that Sharda would continue her affair with Declaring Love..., the second book comes as a dampener. The translator of love poetry has emerged in her new avatar as a hard-nosed professional. Published by Macmillan, Script to Screen, a textbook for students of journalism, is perhaps the first book of its kind which exhaustively yet lucidly takes the learner through the whole process of good writing and good television. "Declaring Love... showcased the dreamer in me, while Script to Screen gives the essence of the professional in me," says the petite lady. "The book has more on its menu than just news talk. It has, for instance, recipes for personality grooming and voice and body language training. Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and various other personalities have all attended courses on voice training and body language. It is the first step in image-making. The book covers all this and more," she says.

The book, in fact, was been so well liked that it got her the Fulbright Scholarship. She was in Syracuse University, New York, learning radio and TV production full time. She also trained as a contributor to CNN’s World Report programme in Atlanta. "It was a great learning experience. It opened my eyes to the potential which TV has in terms of mass education. It can also help quell ignorance by educating people about their rights. Local TV, for instance, can offer a voice to public grievances and provide feedback. Who knows such an approach may herald a new era of transparency in administration, speedy redressal of grievances or better observance of code of ethics by the political leadership," she says.

Sharda’s dream is to run a communications centre set up by the government but geared towards generating its own funds. "It will have four wings," she says enthusiastically, "one will produce and transmit educational TV programmes, the second will undertake commercial production for the industry, while the other two will handle communication traffic for the government and the private sector. The revenues will come from commercial production and communication traffic of private entrepreneurs."

This achiever is very clear about her goals and how she is going to achieve them. "Everything comes with a price tag attached. It involves sacrifice. I have grown-up daughters and a part of me wants to succumb to the warmth and security of marriage and motherhood. The other part pulls me to fulfil the demands of what lies latent in me. I have struck a happy balance between the two."

— Belu Maheshwari