Ravish Kumar

Definitely there has been a decline in journalism. It wasn't there at all when you fought an election, won, lost and came back to become an editor. That must have been the golden age of journalism.

I am an ordinary citizen and quite insignificant, but I am also a vigilant and committed journalist.

I have an aluminium trunk that I came to Delhi with. God has given me a lot in the last 27 years, but that trunk remains with me. I can return to Motihari with that trunk but I have my family to support.

If I cannot speak or write about it, I struggle with the truth. When I speak out in an effort to process what I observe and attempt to stretch myself beyond my many inadequacies, people ask me am I not afraid of the government? I am scared of my inadequacies.

The media understands the system only on the basis of ministers and governments. It seldom sympathises with the people who work within that system.

Hitting someone with a shoe is in principle anti-Dalit. If you investigate stories about hitting someone with a shoe, you will find that this sort of language was used only by those who were upper-caste.

Democracy provides the space for open criticism.

The language of our democracy should be such that the weakest in our society should feel safe.

In journalism, I have done many a bad report. Some have been exceptionally terrible.

It is common knowledge that social media today is fertile ground for trampling all over the decency of language. This is done not just by members of your party and your supporters but also those from the opposition. And their numbers are increasing every day.

I often stumble upon new stories when I am wandering on the roads in search of information.

In the film 'PK', questions have been raised about the theatrics surrounding religion, but it is not limited to a particular faith. In the end, the film teaches us, every religion says love one another and trust one another.

The lifespan of faith and culture is much more than the ones who play politics in its name.

We live in an 'eventocracy'. This is a new form of democracy where there is nothing greater than the event. Any policy announcement has so many events that people have begun to believe in the arrival of an avatar.

Anchors aren't just creating fiction; they're becoming characters in the fiction they themselves create. In the world of TV channels, facts are presented like fiction, so governments aren't inconvenienced; fiction is presented like fact, so governments stay happy.

Not everyone is in love and nor does everyone have the courage for love. In our country, most people simply fantasise about being in love. I don't know about other countries but in India, to love is to battle with innumerable social and religious barriers.

Innumerable lovers of Hindi cinema have lit up the big screen. But on screen, they are just two beautiful bodies. They have no caste nor religion. The love that our filmmakers imagined was little more than make-believe.

There are some Muslim leaders whose wives are Hindu. There are some Hindu leaders who are married to Muslim women. These have been love marriages, but such couples do not display their love in public. They are wary and cautious about annoying voters.

I am genuinely interested in China, I wanted to see it visually.

Films which often preach Hindu-Muslim unity have deliberately steered clear of Hindu-Muslim love stories.

The walk of migrant workers towards their home is a march against the stripping of their democratic rights. With their walk, they are defying the system, walking on roads which they are not allowed to tread.

Romantic relationships would get formed, then fall apart. Because unlike in Delhi, love was viewed differently back home in Bihar, where issues like caste were the breaking point.

I live surrounded by threats. I must stay alert. I am a law-abiding citizen; have never broken any rule while driving. But if someone clicks a photo or shoots a video, I have to be suspicious of their intentions.

The real legacy of Atal Bihari Vajpayee lies in the politics of opposition. The politics of opposition is the politics of dissent. From 1957 to 1996, he dedicated his life to exactly that.

Anil Sethi told me to get into journalism. The thought got into my head, that I could see things, write about them. I used to, anyhow, roam around, observe and describe things I saw.