I have lived and worked in four countries, and this little note is a postscript-as-foreword as I realized just how long-winded I have been. In newspaper column size, (New Times Roman, 10pt with 10.5 leading!), what follows is about 70 inches. ACES  has been kind enough to offer me some Web space, and I fear I may be abusing its  hospitality. 

Enough already! (Return to ACES member pages)

Contact Saleem Syed-Ali: saleemsyedali@yahoo.com

I have been the news / wire / page 1 editor of The Herald Journal in Logan, Utah, for the past four and a half years. The HJ is a small newspaper - 'small' by East and West Coast standards - that has still been proving itself by winning a slew of awards. 

The latest of these has been the Utah Society for Professional Journalists' 'Best Front Page' award for 2001. Since the SPJ has a policy of naming an individual as well as the paper, the HJ and I have won the award. 

We also won the Utah Press Association's Best Front Page award for 2001; the UPA awards it to the newspaper and does not name the person who designed the page. The HJ's city editor and business reporter have also won awards from the SPJ this year. 

In recent years, the HJ has also picked up the General Excellence award in the under-50,000 circulation category of the Utah-Idaho-Spokane Newspaper Association (2000), and was Front-Page Design runner-up in the Society of Newspaper Design's Utah competition in 1999. There have also been several awards for reporting and editorial cartoons. 

One of the best things about living in Logan for us is that there is an applied technology center in town. So my wife and I periodically join courses on graphic design and Web design on the cheap - at $30 to $80 for 20 to 24 hours of in-class instruction, the courses are a steal! 

I regularly look up the ACES discussion board, and the Web sites of the Poynter Institute, Society for News Design, American Journalism Review and the American Society of Newspaper Editors - all are thought-provoking, and add to my knowledge of journalism issues.

Many of our ideas for improvement in writing, editing and display have come from these sources, and from my purchases in the past couple of years I would recommend ASNE's 'The Local News Handbook' for a fresh look at issues related to content and Poynter's 'Eyes on the News' for a better understanding of design concepts.

I would like personally to attend a couple of seminars organized by ACES and Poynter, but a small newspaper has a modest budget for such activities and, while I did toy with the idea of attending a conference or two at my own cost, a couple of unexpected expenses put paid to that dream. Ah well, sometime in the future ...

I hope I am not just rambling here - what I would like to convey is that we are trying, as a small newspaper, to improve ourselves and the paper in an economical way. Attending low-priced local courses and scouring Web sites may not equal what one can learn in a conference attended by one's peers and conducted by experts, but is better than stagnating. We occasionally hold in-house brown-bag discussions at the HJ, and my push is often to present the news in a way that improves its chances of being read. 

One contribution that I first made 18 months ago, called "Do you want your story read?", has had to be brushed off and presented again on a couple of occasions - reporters (and copy editors) do need to be reminded every so often, don't they?! 

My biggest grouse - along with muddled syntax, factual errors and pushing key information down to the 10th paragraph - is that reporters are often so absorbed in writing the story that they ignore its presentation. How does one pound out a 25-inch report and not think of picture/graphic possibilities? 

At the same time, I am glad copy editors are taking back some of the turf they lost between the late 1980s and mid-to-late 1990s to designers who had no liking for or concept of news. A copy editor with a good eye for display can, I think, do a better job of putting together a news page than a "pure" designer. The latter are great for creating informational graphics and 'WOW!' feature pages, but I would like the copy desk to retain control of the news pages. 

Growing up

I - and my wife Nausheen and our two children, Zaid and Fariya - have lived in Logan, home of Utah State University, since late 1997. We moved here from Mississauga, Ontario (Canada), where we had lived for close to 3 years. Before that I lived in Dubai, United Arab Emirates - for 3 years as a single man and the next 6 as a married one. Our children were born there. 

I had better back up a bit. 

I was born in Hyderabad, India, and went to school there. The reading habit was slow in coming, and I didn't get hooked on books till the 4th grade. Books opened up a whole new world for me, just as they must have for you. 

Billy Bunter was an early favorite, along with all the books of Enid Blyton, Archie and Sad Sack comics, Mad magazine and Westerns, with Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour at the top of the list. By 7th grade interest had shifted to include Mark Twain, Ogden Nash, P.G. Wodehouse and Tom Sharpe. As I grow older, my interest in fiction has receded, and non-fiction has more appeal. 

Nausheen and I (and my siblings, who live in the Boston, New York and Detroit areas) keep getting asked "Did you learn English in the U.S. (or Canada)?" and we have to explain that the number of people in India who speak English is greater than the population of the U.S. 

The accent in which English is spoken varies across India, but there are 16 "official" languages and over 200 major Indian dialects, so the educated Indian who travels across the country has to resort to English to communicate. 

I attended the St. George's (Preparatory) Grammar School till third grade, then the St. George's Grammar School for Boys till grade 12. As the name implies, there is a British connection; the school was founded by British and Australian Anglican missionaries in 1835, and our high school diplomas till the late 1970s were awarded by Cambridge University. 

The English teachers were very, very fussy about the use of the Queen's English. 

If you were asked "How are you today?" and ever replied "Good" as many Americans are wont to do, you were asking for your mouth to be washed out with soap - unless you were in a higher grade, in which case you could get either a couple of whacks with a cane or detention in which you would probably write a couple of hundred times "I am fine, thank you, and how are you?" 

Yet the Brits were very involved in the local culture; many could read Urdu newspapers and enjoyed Urdu poetry and songs - and, of course, Hyderabadi cuisine, which you have to taste to believe. 

Considering what has been going on in India in the past few months, St. Georgians could offer plenty of examples of living in harmony. St. George's used to hold Wednesday morning Mass that was open to all students irrespective of their religious beliefs; Friday afternoon lunch timings were staggered so Muslim kids could go and attend prayers at a nearby mosque. School assembly began every day with the Lord's Prayer.

What is happening in much of Asia and the Middle East these days has little to do with religion. It is mass illiteracy and political and economic deprivation coming to a boil, with some very unscrupulous leaders stirring up the pot to further their own ends. Which, obviously, is no solace to those whose loved ones were among the victims. 

Working in India

While I was interested in writing and editing from my high school days, I was persuaded by my many aunts and uncles that one needed a 'steady' career, so I went on to earn an undergrad degree in business - at which point I decided enough was enough, and enrolled in an undergrad journalism course with the full approval of my parents. Pa's only motto for us as kids was "do your best at whatever you do" and that still works for me. 

I completed my master's in mass communication and journalism from Osmania University in Hyderabad in 1984 with honors, earning the Indian Herald Gold Medal, while working at a couple of small local news agencies. I started out as a reporter, but then ended up doing so much re-writing of the other reporters' copy that I ended up on the copydesk. 

In 1984 I went to work for a newly launched afternoon daily, and in the next couple of years became the assistant news editor. There were occasional Hindu-Muslim riots those days, but nothing like the action that took place recently in Gujarat or in 1990 and 1992 over the Babri Masjid - Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. 

Still, if you want to be very, very conscious of the thump of your heart and the cold clammy sweat trickling down your back, there is nothing like covering a large-scale riot between two communities. When you enter a neighborhood, you know you have to be alert and keep a cool head if you don't want a policeman to take a shot at you or some residents to come at you with swords, knives, sticks, or stones. 

While I was on the desk, I would still go out with the reporters in the newspaper's Jeep to get a sense of what was happening; as the only one with short-hair and khaki trousers (khaki is the color of the Indian police uniform, and the police use Jeeps), I was the one to sit on the outside with one foot out on the running board, hoping the deception would work long enough if we had to make a quick getaway through some violence-ridden neighborhood. Police escort? Whoever thought of that? 

Fortunately, guns are rare in India - the casualties would be even more horrendous if they were as easy to get as they are in the U.S. Journalists get a 'police pass' to travel during curfews, but there is no guarantee that some jittery cop is not going to shoot first and apologize later. 

The work was exciting - I brought out the edition on Indira Gandhi's assassination - but the pay at that time was poor; conditions have since improved, I am told by friends who stayed on in India. 

Incidentally, the Osmania University Department of Communication and Journalism was the first media course to be offered in India. It started as a certificate course in 1959, and in 1961 became a full-fledged program that offered an undergrad degree upon completion of the course. The graduate program was added a few years later. 

All the early professors studied at American colleges and universities, and while I lived in India no Indian university offered a doctoral program in any media field; it had to be obtained in association with some other department/school that offers doctoral courses. 

For instance, if you want to work on a thesis of the role of newspapers in local elections, you would have to work through the political science department and not the journalism department. 

Still, competition to get into the communication/journalism course can be tough; there are 30 openings each year, and 10,000 to 12,000 students sit for an entrance test to qualify for those 30 seats. Less than a third of the students choose journalism - broadcast media and public relations are the preferred fields. 

Working in Dubai

In 1986, I joined the Khaleej Times of Dubai, United Arab Emirates - 'Khaleej' means 'Gulf' in Arabic - as a copy editor. With a circulation of over 100,000 it is the largest English-language newspaper in the Arab Gulf states, and was sent to the neighboring countries of Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia with some restrictions imposed by those countries to protect their local newspapers. Distribution of KT, for instance, was allowed only a day late to protect the local media and give local censors time to check the contents. 

I was editor of the children's magazine, Young Times, in 1987-88 when we featured a 10-year-old girl in an ice skating outfit on the cover. She had been selected to take part in a show organized by the Mickey Mouse, Goofy and Co. troupe that was doing a round of the Arab Gulf states. The Saudi authorities allowed the mag in only after blacking out the kid's body from the waist down. 

Over the 9 years, I also worked at different times as the editorial page editor, page 1 editor and daily feature section editor. Among KT's strengths: very strong international coverage as the readership, mostly non-Arab people who spoke English, came from so many parts of the world. America, Britain/Europe, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East and Africa would usually have two pages each of news dedicated to them. The paper itself was the 'old' style broadsheet, with 8 columns.

While KT had correspondents in several major cities of the world, there was heavy reliance on wire copy, and the list of agencies was long: AP, Reuter, AFP, DPA, Tass, a number of Middle Eastern and Asian services and news feature arrangements with the Washington Post-L.A. Times, and with The Guardian, The Times, and The Telegraph of Britain and about a dozen Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, Bangladeshi and Filipino newspapers. 

KT was one of the early papers to start using computers for pagination. This was in early 1992, when Digital Technology International of Orem, Utah - creator of the PageSpeed and SpeedPlanner pagination software - won the contract to turn KT high-tech. I was one of 6 people to receive intensive training (12 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 3 weeks!), and we became trainers for the rest of the editorial staff. That was also my first introduction to PhotoShop and Freehand. It was Aldus then, but became Macromedia Freehand along the way. 

All Arab states are not equal; Saudi Arabia, because of its greater oil wealth, population and location of sites considered holy by Muslims, exercises greater economic, political and religious clout. In the United Arab Emirates itself, the emirate of Abu Dhabi has the most influence; the emirate of Dubai is the most easy-going (it would be quite a stretch to call it 'progressive') as well as the regional business hub.

If you are an English-speaking person, you will manage quite well in Dubai, as most Arabs and non-Arabs living there speak at least some English; you may have to strain a bit to catch the accent, but that is about it. Many Arabs in better positions have studied in England and the U.S., and can communicate quite well in English. 

Ah, the tales I could tell... 

Anyway, I worked in Dubai for KT from 1986 to 1995. Among the highlights: I brought out the special editions on the start and end of the Gulf War. 

Over the years, starting in the early 1980s, my siblings and parents had moved to the U.S., and we decided we would like to raise our children in the West too. Besides, while Dubai is 'free' compared to most of the Arab countries, there are still some odd restrictions. 

Life in Canada

Just to be different, we moved to Canada, and my sisters and brother still rib me about that decision. While Canada is a lovely country, the mid and late 1990s were not a good time for journalists. The big papers had laid off many journalists, and were not looking for new faces.

So, for a year, I worked in computer sales and as a columnist for a Toronto-based monthly Asian magazine and for my old paper, the KT. After a year, I got kicked out from the computer sales job (the tales I could tell about retail computer sales!) and started working with my wife, who is a graphic designer. That was no picnic either; clients need their work done now, but your check has to wait a good long time ...

Along the way, I also went back to school for a short spell to learn graphic design; again, brushing up on Quark and learning some Web programs. 

On a more personal note, it was only after moving to Canada that I met many of my relatives. My father's family was split when India and Pakistan split; he and his oldest brother stayed on in India while 3 brothers and a sister moved to Pakistan. Except for Pa's oldest brother, who died in June 2002 in India at age 86, and his sister, who died in Pakistan some years ago, three migrated to the U.S. and and one to Canada, and it is here that they were all reunited. In 1997, Pa and 3 of his brothers met in Chicago - the first time in 40 years that they had all been in the same place at one time. Sadly, only the uncle in Canada remains of that generation.

Moving to the U.S.

In 1997, when The Herald Journal offered me the news editor's job, I jumped at the opportunity. So, for the past four and a half years, we have lived here and tried to learn the American way. 

I have just completed a two-year stint on our kids' elementary school's site-based committee, and Nausheen was the PTA education commissioner and yearbook editor last year. For the past three years, we have also been volunteering a couple of hours a week helping children in our kids' classes develop their reading and math skills. My mother taught math and physics at a high school for 34 years, and I guess education is something we have learned to treasure. 

Their school, one of the top three in Utah in terms of SAT and other scores, has in recent years seen an influx of children from California's then-Spanish-language stream. Many don't speak English at home, and a bit of extra help is always welcome. We have seen what some practice and encouragement can do - kids who three years ago were struggling to read and even to speak in English are now on par with native-English speakers. 

Ah, yes, the four wives and 40 kids bit ....

Great-great grandpa was offered a job in the Hyderabad administrative/army services by the Nizam (king), and sailed there from Ayinat in the Hadramaut region of Yemen sometime in the 1870s. Of his four wives, the first, my mother's great-grandmother, had 20 kids, wife number 2 had none and the remaining 2 had another 20 kids between them. 

As the oldest of 40 siblings, great-grandpa was born to lead, and proved it by becoming the head of the 6th Nizam's army. Hyderabad was at that time the largest of the Indian princely states. 

On my dad's side, 6 generations ago Syed Mirak Khan, a newcomer to India and a general in the army of the then-governor of the Deccan, helped him to become the first Nizam of Hyderabad, for which he earned a bunch of fancy titles like Zorawar Jung (loosely translated, 'strong guy'), Rafat-ut Dowlah ('leading light'), Rafat-ul Mulk ('light of the nation') and, more simply, commander-in-chief of the Asifiya Army (Asif was the family name of the Nizams). Syed Mirak, though of Arab descent, made his way by the land route, travelling over what is now Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan to enter the Indian states. 

Syed Mirak over the course of the years became a very wealthy man, but his grandson, my great-grandfather, became a Sufi at age 16, renounced all interest in worldly things, gave away all his properties and spent the rest of his long life in meditation surrounded by a large group of adoring disciples. 

The use of the word 'Khan' in the Indian subcontinent could mean one of two things: The person so-named could be a Pashtun of southern Afghanistan, in which case he is an ethnic Pashtun/Pathan, or the name may be conferred upon a person by royalty, in which case it means 'warrior' and would be the equivalent of the Birtish 'knight.'. It comes from the Chinese word 'qan' which also means 'warrior'. 

Which brings to mind the limerick about the great lord of Japan (or, if you prefer, Iran), whose name on a Sunday began. It went on through Wednesday, till twilight on Thursday, and sounded likes stones in a can.