Garbage Beat

by Richa Lakhera

Hands off my f*****g newscutter, you son of a b****, or I will chop your b***s off!

Did Laila really say that? Not in her wildest dreams, not till sometime ago …

Laila is on the entertainment beat – a world full of vain heroines, egoistic superstars, spirited item girls, prissy stars … To top it all, life in the newsroom is a series of deadline-driven bloopers.

Adding to the mayhem is a sexy Bollywood journo-turned-item girl Latika; Chiki, the reporter who is obsessed with a superstar; award-winning super hack Indumati; and their razor-sharp and hard-to-please editor Bunny.

Caught between her ambition to excel, a live-in boyfriend who feels ignored, and a father who is ashamed of her career choice, Laila realizes that the life of an entertainment reporter is not the glamour ride she had expected … because, on the Garbage Beat, reporting is a harrowing, ball-crushing, back-breaking affair.

296 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Ten years of entertainment journalism. A lifetime of manoranjan junkie. Richa believes that you should accept your most demented thoughts fears and fantasies.
Born in Dehradun. Richa did her Masters in Chemistry from Miranda House, before she studied Journalism. Special Correspondent and TV Anchor Richa is currently Associate Editor, entertainment in a prominent news channel. She has extensively covered Hindi Cinema, Bollywood, Fashion and Art in several prominent national news channels and reported from Delhi to Dubai

She has produced, anchored and reported for shows like Night Out, Bollywood Quiz show idbi sawaal india ka, Glamour Show,Filmy Friday, Cinema India, Cinema ke Sikander, Raat Baki.

Richa is a fine artist. She stays in Delhi with her husband and daughter

Reviews

[VaultOfBooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

By Richa Lakhera. Grade B

“Hands off my f*****g newscutter, you son of a b****, or I will chop your b***s off!”
Did Laila really say that? Not in her wildest dreams, not until sometime ago…

Garbage Beat by Richa Lakhera
Laila is on the entertainment beat – a world full of vain heroines, egoistic superstars, spirited item girls, prissy celebs. To top it all, life in the newsroom is a series of deadline-driven bloopers.
Adding to the mayhem is the sexy Bollywood journo-turned-item girl Latika; Chiki, the reporter who is obsessed with a superstar; award-winning super hack Indumati; and their razor-sharp and hard-to-please editor Bunny.
Caught between her ambition to excel, a live-in boyfriend who feels ignored, and a father who is ashamed of her career choice, Laila realizes that the life of an entertainment reporter is not the glamour ride she had expected. Because, on the Garbage Beat, reporting is a harrowing, ball-crushing, back-breaking affair.

What happens when you see one of those TV shows which divulge straight into the life of superstars? Do you feel like knowing more about the good, the bad and the ugly? Do you want to be the one uncovering the scams and covering hi-fi events live? And if so, how the hell would you manage to convince your orthodox parents to accept your career choice as an entertainment journalist, instead of fulfilling their dream by becoming an engineer, doctor, or a C.A.?

Well, then you got to meet Laila, our protagonist who is exactly that. Having landed in her dream job as an entertainment journalist after working her ass off for years, she finally gets her own show, ‘Filmy Masti.’ Laila, who wants to leave a mark in the field she is SO passionate about, realizes that life as an entertainment journalist is not as glamorous, beautiful and exciting as she had thought it would be. Life seems to be tough for Laila. She is desperately seeking approval from her father regarding her career choice, and not being able to spend sufficient time with her boyfriend, Rehan because of work commitments seems to be bad enough. But to top off the cake with some icing, her boss Bunny constantly reminds her that there is a long queue of girls waiting to take her job. Only the daily dose of ‘adrenalin rush’ to complete a news item and present it keeps her going.

Does Laila eventually garner the approval of her family? Does she lose out on the love of her life? Is the “harrowing, ball-crushing, back-breaking affair” actually worth it? This is what forms the rest of the story.

Garbage Beat is a fun fast-paced read about the life of an entertainment journalist in full form. The author has managed to capture the true essence of the television industry; it is a scandalous journey into the world of television journalism. The author’s experience in the world of entertainment has probably helped her include nuances which made the book just that much more authentic. Every character in the book – Bunny, Chikki, Rehan, Latika – has been clearly defined, with each having an important role to play in Laila’s life. The book is hilarious at certain places.

If you are comfortable reading conversations leaking with abusive language, and internal conspiracies brewing here and there and everywhere, you would enjoy reading the book. But I suppose that is how the world of media actually is. Although I did not improve the author’s opening gambit of jumping right in the middle of action with a lot of technical jargon, perhaps thinking the reader would be just as fluent with the lingo, for those looking to enter the world of journalism, Garbage Beat would be extremely helpful to understand how your dream world actually works.


Originally reviewed at http://vaultofbooks.com/

[Yatin Gupta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have this thing for books related to media industry. The reason behind this could be that I have too many friends working in media industry and hence I get to know behind the scenes story and various anecdotes from them from time to time. When I first read the blurb of the book “Garbage Beat”, I had put it in my list. Harper Collins India was kind enough to send me a copy and the book became my weekend read. Right from the first page till the end, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one because the book clearly reflects what exactly happens when you are running a popular daily show on a news channel.

Laila, the protagonist of the book, is a career oriented girl and after working her guts off, she gets her own show to anchor, “Filmy Masti”. Her boss Bunny is one hell of a task master and she makes sure that she keeps everyone in her team on their toes, she is sarcastic to the core and spews abuses like anything. Laila’s father is not happy with her career choice and gets even more upset when he learns that she would be reporting about entertainment industry. Her relationship with her boyfriend Rehan also goes for a toss with time because she was not able to give too much time to him because of her work.

Running from here and there all the time in search of stories and accomplishing tasks assigned by Bunny, Laila makes several mistakes but as her boss knows she is just the perfect person for the job, Bunny shows full faith in her and keeps saving her from the wrath of the top brass of the channel. Laila’s life gets directionless, and when she realises it, it gets too late and now you need to read the book to find out what happens with her in the end.

Richa Lakhera has made sure that the reader is hooked to the book. If you are okay with conversations where people are abusing like anything (Which actually happens in media industry), trying to outdo each other, internal politics and the amount of hard work and time goes into filing one story to be put up on air, then Garbage Beat is a book that you must pick up. Every character in the book is clearly defined and has got a role to play. The book is hilarious at times and cracked me up real bad. Full marks to Richa for coming up with this book. I loved reading this one.

[Vikas Datta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Compelling portrayal of the pressure on this most misunderstood beat but raises some questions about the cult of celebrity that has become part of the modern day life... Quite readable but the use of profanity in the vernacular is little off-putting

[Anuradha Goyal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my genre of books, but read the full review before you decide: http://www.anureviews.com/garbage-bea...