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John Murray Press Scoop-Wallah Life on a Delhi Daily by Justine Hardy
Mr. Singh, Kashmiri greengrocer to South Kensington, looked Justine Hardy in the eye over a cabbage. 'You are a journalist. You should be writing on one of our great newspapers. Then you will be starting to understand us.' So Justine Hardy goes to work for The Indian Express in New Delhi.Memories of Kipling's 'seven years' hard' as a reporter in India haunt her as she travels to Assam and finds the shadows of terrorism stalking the tea gardens. Her landlord, an erstwhile Rajput prince with a fondness for exotic fish with frilly tails, offers advice on all things vital, from choosing face-packs to getting a dowry. He rickshaw driver picks his way gently through her inadequate Hindustani as he takes her from the city's slums to the manicured playing fields of the polo set.Scoop-wallah is an idiosyncratic, funny and sad tale about writing as an outsider on the inside of a country where the newspapers are still printed on hot-metal machines and deadlines are missed because of cows at rush-hour.show more