Pen pricks

LA-ND-TV

Published on 2008-10-29 06:06:00

Agar firdaus bar roo-e zameen ast,Hameen ast-o hameen ast-o hameen ast By Mayabhushan NagvenkarThe two celebrated progenitors of the biggest and perhaps the most brazen surrogate branding exercise in recent times, are set to be neighbours in casino-heaven too.While the undisputed prince of bitters, Dr Vijay Mallya already owns a bewildering monstrosity in the sands of Sinquerim, the more circumspect man of letters, Dr Prannoy Roy of NDTV is all set to follow suit in the neighboring village of Ca

KUCH IS TARAH TAY KII HAI MANZILEIN HUMNEIN - GIRE, GIR KE UTHE, UTH KAR CHAL PADE

Published on 2008-10-28 05:29:00

Hi guys, we've been away for a while.There've been reasons. We've been fighting a battle of a different sort ourselves.Our utmost concern has been our inability to provide you the one story which we promised. Because we havent been able to keep our word twice on deadlines before this, we wont make any promises this time round. We are just going to go public the story without giving u a deadline. As for the blog, no its not dead, but the guys behind it were in not very good shape. And yes, there

NIGHT OF THE LONG KNIVES: WHEN THE GOA EDITORS GUILD WENT 'PRICK' HUNTING

Published on 2008-09-29 01:53:00

We ran a post sometime back telling you guys, how the Goa Editor's Guild which met on July 11, 2008 at the Goa Marriott Resort, contemplated the extermination of Penpricks. Here's an invite issued by the GEG chairman and The Navhind Times editor Arun Sinha. This scanned hard copy of the invite dispatched to the rest of the editors in Goa (barring the TOI resident editor, who did not attend the meeting, because he was made a last minute inclusion into this 'elite' club).The point we are concerned

CHURCHILL ALEMAO PLANTS A NEW SAPLING

Published on 2008-09-28 12:36:00

Damn... damn... damn... some of you guys are right, we should have judged the time needed right. The story we promised will take a few days more guys. We've learned out lesson. Next time round, we'll be more punctual. But there's something to tell you guys. Ever since we put the teaser out, there's been two attempts to hack the blog's password. We have strong suspicion that it must have been one of those journos from Sujay's harem. But that's alright... but we have a feeling very few of you actu

COMING UP SOON...

Published on 2008-09-19 12:13:00

Hi guys... The story's almost ready guys... Let's say, we've struck a purple patch... Call these posts, a build up if you like. There will be one more teaser, before we come out with the story about this editor, who's become a symbol for the nouveau breed of journalists-turned-businessmen. Editors like these are a symptom of a wheezing, retching, stifled profession called journalism, which is in desperate need for a nice long honest breath of fresh air.Here's our prayer... Don't fall for these

IN SLIGHTER VEIN: THE GOA STATE COMMISSION FOR WOMEN AND A COMPROMISING POSITION

Published on 2008-09-16 09:41:00

After being the first to bring the Herald sexual harassment issue to the fore, it's only fair that we inform the readers of this blog, about the decision taken at the Goa State Commission for Women vis a vis this case. The GSCW has told the media that a compromise/settlement has been worked out. That the Herald Publications Pvt Ltd general manager N Manjunath has apologized to the commission in writing and he is willing to take the victim back into employment in the same position she worked in

MEET THE TWO HOGS, WHO SIMPLY LOVE THIS BLOG

Published on 2008-09-13 13:58:00

Hi, don't think you guys know it, but this blog receives an average of 15 comments on a normal day. When we run stories, the number of comments run in multiples of the number. Unfortunately we can reproduce only some of these comments. We have to delete several of these comments, because they contain extremely creative slander and such fantastic claims which we are unable to either verify nor substantiate.But we really intend to thank the guys who send these kind of comments to us. They are our

COMING UP SOON...

Published on 2008-09-12 07:21:00

Hi guy... the story we'd promised you about this suave editor is just about ready. A week or two at the most.Its about... hang on will you....

EVERY DOG HAS HIS DAY: HERALD'S FRANCIS RIBIERO ALIAS CHOPPY PUT TO GRAZE IN CANACONA

Published on 2008-09-10 15:26:00

Seems like all hell broke loose while we were away. We really shouldn't be making a habit out of it, but we are so damn sorry we couldn't upload a post for quite a bit. Some claim its job hunting that PP's doing, others have been claiming that we lost our drive, some others have claimed we pricks, have lost our balls. The concern has been simply over whelming. We appreciate that.But seems like a lot has happened since we last pressed 'publish post'. To begin with the Francis Janim Xavier Ribiero

CAUTION, MEN AT WORK - II: STORIES OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT, FROM DEMPO COLLEGE TO HERALD PUBLICATIONS

Published on 2008-08-26 09:16:00

This is the concluding part of Augusto Pinto's piece on the Herald sexual harassment case. We've put up those numbers again guys, at the bottom of the post. Just heard that Herald MD Raul Fernandes is back in Goa. If you guys want to ensure a fair trial, call any of these numbers up and remind these guys about their responsibility. PenPricksThe Herald Sexual Harassment Case: Here Is The Connection In The Form Of A Few Comments, Predictions And Advice.1] Like V.R.Naik, Manjunath will avoid appear

CAUTION, 'MEN AT WORK': STORIES OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT, FROM DEMPO COLLEGE TO HERALD PUBLICATIONS

Published on 2008-08-25 10:49:00

Hey guys, we've received a well articulated piece on the Herald sexual harassment issue from Mr Augusto Pinto, who has seen a similar case involving Dempo college principal Dr Vaman Naik from close quarters. We are running his piece in two parts. This is the first one. Those who wish to comment on this piece will have have to either lend their names to their piece, or better still send us a response from their genuine email IDs, since the writer has stuck his neck out to state his point. Anonymo

NO SEX PLEASE, WE ARE THE HERALD!!!

Published on 2008-08-24 13:47:00

Here's a small development in the Herald sexual harassment case guys...Sources close to the Goa State Women's Commission claim that the victim has now been sent a Rs 1 crore defamation notice by Manjunath, through his lawyer. Guys at the Herald tell us that the management is leaning in Manjunath's favour too... This isn't a fair thing happening guys.The Herald management which operates the premises in which both the victim and the accused were working has to ensure that a fair environment exis

WEEK 2 -- SEXUAL HARASSMENT AT THE HERALD: ACCUSED GM MANJUNATH CONTINUES TO GRIN

Published on 2008-08-20 14:53:00

Goan local newspapers went to town about the sexual harassment case at Goa Architecture College recently. But just how serious are our local newspapers in particular about sexual harassment in their own workspace.Barring the Gomantak Times and the Goan Observer, no newspaper has as yet, reported the sexual harassment case registered at the state unit of the National Commission for Women, involving N Manjunath, the general manager of the Herald, one of Goa’s leading English dailies.The Navhind

UM'RAoJaAN'

Published on 2008-08-16 02:47:00

One fine day in the state of Goaput, a god-fearingcourtesan with a mole on her face looked at the mirror only to discover lines on it. She was aging. In hindsight all those years of years of petty pilfering from her clients wallets, really hadn’t amounted to much. Mortgage had eaten into most of it, she told herself. She didn’t even have her own home yet, she rationalised. She decided it was time to make the most of her clients, which included the who’s who of the city’s elite. The next

HERALD GENERAL MANAGER MANJUNATH ACCUSED OF SEXUALLY HARASSING A WOMAN EMPLOYEE AT WORK

Published on 2008-08-09 07:42:00

Something disturbing has come up guys.A woman employee at the Herald Cable Network (HCN), Panjim has filed a sexual harassment complaint against Herald general manager N Manjunath.This is not the first instance, when a high-ranking Herald employee has been charged with sexual harassment. We had mentioned a case in an earlier PP post, but had stopped short of taking names because we didn’t have any evidence to substantiate our claims.This time round, we have seen a copy of the complaint written

COMING UP SOON... SEXUAL HARASSMENT AT THE HERALD

Published on 2008-08-08 14:18:00

OH... BY THE WAY GUYS... DO YOU KNOW THIS GRINNING GRINGO?

देखना है ज़ोर कितना बाजु-ऐ-कातिल में है... CRIMINAL ACTION AGAINST PENPRICKS? EXCHANGES ON GOA JOURNO

Published on 2008-07-21 23:49:00

THE GOA EDITORS GUIL'T'A bunch of farts, locally known as the Goa Editor's Guild, a body of editors representing Goan newspapers with a combined daily circulation of about a lakh and more, sat down for dinner, drinks at the Panjim Marriot and also to discuss ways to shut down http://penpricks.blogspot.com/. Looks like Nazi-Gate has really, really hurt these fellas. Penpricks is incidentally read by say about only 500 readers everyday (this, on days when there's no piano-carrying Johann Bach, or

OF COLD FEET AND FROST BYTES: THE STORY OF THE GT INTERVIEW THAT WASN'T PUBLISHED

Published on 2008-07-19 04:33:00

Hi guys... the silence of the Goan media on Nazi-gate really does not shock us. These guys have always behaved like ostriches, who are only keen on hiding both, their eggs and their balls (for those who have an issue with the word 'balls', you could interpret it as a set of dummy eggs). So we were pleasantly surprised when GT features contacted us for an email interview. This was way back on July 4, when GT correspondent Arti Das wrote to us...Hi Mr Penpricks (I got to know your gender through O

SOME COMMENTS ON NAZI-GATE

Published on 2008-07-19 03:57:00

Hi... Here's a few links for some blogs and media sites which have critiqued Nazi-gate. You guys could run through some of these links if you wish to... The post after this one in all likelihood would be the last post on Nazi-gate, unless there's some significant development on that front... What would qualify as significant... Hmmm say if Telegraph files a story tomorrow claiming that one of its journos have actually trapped Johan Bach somewhere in the Sunderbans...Until something else turns up

SANJAY DHAVALIKAR'S 'SWORD'PLAY: WHEN A MESSENGER STABS A MESSENGER...

Published on 2008-07-12 06:59:00

It all tumbled out in Nazi-Gate, you saw that... right guys?But we’ve reserved the best for the last.You know there are times when newspapers ‘sex’ up news, but there are other rare occasions when editors, reporters, news editors all gang up and literally ‘sodomise’ news. Hey, while sodomy per se qualifies for punishment in the Indian Penal Code, 'sodomizing news' does not attract any penalty.The case in point is Dainik Gomantak editor Sanjay Dhavalikar’s treatment of the Nazi-Gate s

... कहीं ऐसा न हो यां भी वही काफिर सनम निकले*

Published on 2008-07-12 06:26:00

Oh my my.... After a long long spell we get you a Joseph Deva special. This was a lead story on the Herald about the Sanguem double murder, where the husband suspecting infidelity had murdered his wife and ended up killing his sister in law's hubby by accident, before killing himself. While the newspapers as a whole covered this tragic story poorly, Joseph did try to inject some excitement into the coverage. Now Joseph is a very devout Christian. And we really did expect him to know the differen

NAZI-GATE -- THE GOAN JOURNO PRICKS

Published on 2008-07-08 07:14:00

Herald -- The Humble Pricks 3 pricks out of 10 It was Herald which caught the bait hoot, line and s't'inker. They put this story on the front page, with a nice read duo-decked header and they put old gramps Bach pic on it… Was he grinning... heheAnd we were kicked.That’s the paper we subscribe to at home.But one thing you’ve got to give these guys. These guys did not stray out of line. They behaved as admirably as a conservative Laxmibai Rudranath Tokre would when faced with an opportunity

NAZI-GATE -- HONOURING THE REAL PRICKS IN THE MEDIA -- PART 2

Published on 2008-07-08 07:02:00

INDIAN EXPRESS – A PRICK CALLED COURAGE2 pricks out of 10 If there was ever a police officer who had to eat crow in Nazi-gate it was the additional Director General of Police (Intelligence) Karnataka Police Shankar Bidari. The Indian Express claims that it confirmed the story because of the nod given by Bidari.It may have been unintentional, but this story has also amply proved how inept our intelligence agencies really are.These are the same guys, which are responsible for tackling anti-socia

NAZI-GATE -- HONOURING THE REAL PRICKS IN THE MEDIA

Published on 2008-07-03 11:24:00

Hi guys, we thank all of you for dropping by and taking time to comment...We've been running this blog as an underground forum for critiquing the media in Goa for more than a year now. Your comments will keep the fire going...Starting now, we're running the first of the three part series on how the media manipulates news. How the media houses manipulated the information we had furnished in the Perus Narkp pressnote we provided, to pass it off as their own, attributing it to 'sources'.This is a m

NAZI-GATE: GUYS, IT’S TIME WE ‘KILLED’ JOHANN BACH

Published on 2008-07-01 04:45:00

WHEN THE MEDIA WENT ‘BACH’ING UP THE WRONG TREEWe begin with this post with a premise, so that some of those readers who have any seditionist, trans-nation conspiracy notions about this blog, shed these ideas before we move forward. Nowadays the charge of sedition is as commonplace as a tavern on a Goan street.As journalists, we are ashamed at the way the Indian media reported the two most sensational murders in recent times. These tragedies virtually grabbed the attention of Western and Nor