By Nirmaldasan
(nirmaldasan@hotmail.com)

— Appeared in the April 2010 issue of the Journalism Online newsletter —

Barefoot, a sort of community newspaper put together by some 30-odd students of the Department of Journalism in SRM University, was released on  Friday (25 March 2010) by the noted historian and editor of Madras Musings, Mr. S. Muthiah. Dr. Sridhar Krishnaswami, Head -- School of Media Studies,  received the first copy.

Rahul Lahkar, editor of Barefoot (I MA JMC), welcomed the audience  consisting of the faculty and students of the departments of journalism and  visual communication at the MBA Seminar Hall and introduced the chief guest. Outlining the newspaper's vision, he said: "As students of journalism we were curious to know the various aspects of making a newspaper and how things are put together. In the initial stages Barefoot  was not away from hiccups on how to go about the various aspects of reporting, editing, page designing and printing. But the curiosity to lay hands on it made us believe that all our efforts will make us learn and it will be a practical experience. We started, stopped, stood up and started again to make ourselves believe that we could do it." And they did it; and,  as he says, 'intend to move on with the same determination, enthusiasm and  energy in order to learn more'.

Geetha Bharathi (I MA MC), who had suggested Barefoot's tagline 'creating  imprints', sang the prayer song. It may be noted that K.R. Ramu (I MA JMC) had designed the nameplate.

The chief guest Mr. Muthiah said that the basics of journalism could be  taught within six months and what mattered most was practice. Recalling the  days when he was the Honorary Dean of this school, he said he had planned  to run the BA programme along practical lines -- a course in which students would have to bring out a fortnightly or weekly newspaper. But his dreams  fell flat for lack of funds, he said and urged the current Head to press the university to finance Barefoot, which at present is a wholly student-driven initiative.

Mr. Muthiah said that Barefoot had much scope of becoming a vibrant journal as the Tambaram-Chengalpet stretch was a boom area for community news. He pointed out that all community newspapers had to depend on advertising. "But there should be enough content to make a difference to the community," he added and hoped that the Barefoot team would make a difference within a  year.    

Congratulating the newspaper's editor Rahul Lahkar (I MA JMC) and his team, Dr. Sridhar Krishnaswami urged them to continue with the good work, making each issue better than the previous ones. A community newspaper, he said, would help the students look beyond academics and get a larger picture by focussing on the immediate environment. However, he urged them to involve  the experienced journalism faculty such as Prof. Venkat Pulapaka and  himself. "We will make it a success!" he concluded.

Sooraj Rajmohan (I BA JMC) was the compere. Chinmayee Mishra (II BA JMC) proposed a vote of thanks.