Meeting journalists and publicists in Dallas

Having been out of India and not practicing my profession during the past couple of months here I was itching for some action. Curious to know about the local media scene and if possible attend a press conference or two, I decided and got in touch with the Press Club of Dallas by e-mail.

I was surprised to get a prompt response from Jo Ann Holt, a veteran journalist and car columnist and social secretary of the Press Club of Dallas welcoming me to US and inviting me to attend a party at Ounce Prime Steakhouse, Dallas. After exchanging a few e-mails I confirmed and decided to meet up the members of the press at Ounce Prime Steakhouse, a new opened upscale place in Addison. Ounce prides itself in serving best in Steak, Wine and Martinis in a friendly and soothing ambiance.

As soon as I entered Ounce, I asked for the Press Club meeting and was immediately ushered into the bar where a group of people were enjoying drinks and conversation. I walked up and introduced myself to the people there and asked for Jo Ann Holt. I was impressed by the informal atmosphere where senior and cub journalists were interacting freely. One of the highlights of the evening was meeting with senior journalist Hugh Aynesworth, who first reported the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the arrest of Ostwald and his subsequent killing. Aynesworth has also written two books on the Kennedy assassination: The Only Living Witness (1983) and JFK: Breaking the News (2003).

Expectedly all of them had problems in pronouncing my name and to make it easy for them I just shortened and introduced myself as "Nidhi or Needy". Younger journalists were busy discussing their jobs, assignments, etc. As the evening passed on Jo Ann promised me that she would inform me of other Press Club events so I could meet more journalists and also take me to one or two press conferences... Am I excited? You bet I am... just waiting for the opportunity.

Meeting with a naive Palestinian
A funny incident of the evening was when I waited at the lobby for Padma to pick me up. As I waited I got chatting with Ounce Steakhouse's two valets, one of them a Palestinian. Conversation followed the normal track, "Where are you from?", "What do you do?", "How long have you been in US?" etc and then suddenly he asked me a very strange question. "Are there muslims in India?" Frankly I was shocked and surprised by his question. When I mentioned that India hosts the second largest muslim population in the world, he was visibly surprised and commented: "That is several million more than our country which is completely Muslim".

I didn't know what to respond and at that time Jo Ann invited me to go on a short drive round the parking lot in a luxury Lincoln SUV she is reviewing. Back in my mind I was thinking about how naive people could be. It takes all kinds to make the world.