In this joint interview with Adrian Levy about their new book "The Siege: 68 Hours inside the Taj Hotel," journalist Cathy Scott-Clark speaks to my soul:
Nothing can be known right away. I watch people sprinting, cable news style, to the story and rolling all over it. People take breathless stabs at getting to the facts or are clamped down on by the authorities, or are lazy or corrupt and headed off before getting anywhere. I have always liked to wait, even now in the age of Twitter. And walk with a story, a real event, letting it settle so that finally something of the essence of it, something visceral, can be revealed. This can cost you jobs and enrage commissioners. It runs against the times in which we live now, where everything is hyphenated, expedited and précised. But then when you have a story to tell, the art of it is to strip it to the nub and make it march behind the characters.
Notice also the exchange at the end of the Q&A.
Outlook India: What’s coming next?
Adrian: Only the NSA knows.
Cathy: We’ve stopped using email and cell phones.