Sinha’s dismissal, though, has nothing to do with the blog’s content. According to him blogs and bloggers are a waste of time. He thinks—and we’ve all heard him say it many times before—that bloggers are ‘below-par writers who wanted to become journalists but could not’. The real reason for Sinha’s hatred of all things blog though is Media Watch—a popular current affairs blog that often picks up his editorial pieces and shreds them to bits.

‘Did you say she writes about her sex life?’ Ed suddenly asks.

‘Yes,’ Ragini says.

‘Then I say we go ahead with Ragini’s idea as well,’ Ed tells Sinha. ‘Sex always sells newspapers.’

Ragini looks visibly pleased that Ed has overruled Sinha.

‘I’ll do a good job, Ed. After all as a senior reporter I must follow whatever is decided by my editor,’ Ragini says very sweetly.

Though she addresses Ed, she glances towards Sinha triumphantly.

‘Sure Ed, whatever you say,’ Sinha says with a nasty smile. ‘However, I need Ragini to investigate another story—some slums on the banks of the Yamuna are being pulled down—would you mind if someone from Features does this blogger story?’

‘Features can do it,’ Ed says.

Ragini looks absolutely livid.

‘Leena, can you please ask someone from your team to do this blogger article? It’s more of a Features story anyway,’ Sinha says to Comma.

‘Sure, we can do it,’ Comma says. ‘Did you want it for this week, though? We already have another story lined up for lead this week and—’

‘Next week should be fine. Did you have anything else on your mind, Ed?’ Sinha asks Ed.

Ed shakes his head and with that the second edit meeting for today is over.

‘Polly, to my desk please,’ Comma says for the second time today and I don’t like it any better than I’d liked it the first time.

Normally, after an edit meet, the entire Features team would gather around Comma—fashion and food writer Neelima Prabhakar, twins Rajni Bala and Nisha Bala, who cover everything that comes under the generic umbrella of ‘entertainment’, and me, who does everything no one else will.

Unfortunately for me today, everybody else is out on assignment—very convenient when you want to skip an edit meeting—and I have to face Comma alone.

‘Do you know this blog Ragini is talking about?’ Comma asks.

I nod.

‘Can you kindly respond verbally instead of nodding like a schoolgirl?’

‘Yes I know the blog and I read it too,’ I reply.

‘Well good, you can do this article. Remember that both Ed and Sinha will be reading this with a keen eye. You can file the brief for the story by end of day today,’ Comma says and turns away from me.

Sometimes I really cannot understand how, despite keeping my head down and my mouth shut, I end up getting into hot soup.