A born reporter at the wheel.......

Some people are born reporters, some are trained for the job and some find this vocation thrust on them. The Rana brothers who have been chauffering The Indian Express reporters in the north for almost 25 years belong to the latter bracket.
It was quite early in my reporting forays that I learnt that our team wasn’t just me and the cameraperson but the driver as well. It was a wild goose chase for haunted houses in the hills. Surinder ji, the younger of the two brothers with a military mooch and bouffant haircut a la Elvis, didn’t bat a lid when we told him about our mission impossible. Hmm, he grunted. And then lo, before we could knock at the Queen of Hills, he had found one. There it is, he pointed to a desolate mansion deep down the hillside, as porters milled around us with scary stories of the whimsical ghost. And believe me, that turned out to be quite a house though the resident spirit refused to make an appearance.
Then there was this assignment on the vanishing breed of village chowkidars. Rana ji, the older of the duo with his graying hair and ready smile, made the story truly memorable when he whipped up a nonagenarian watchman who had hosted none other than the last British Viceroy. His source: a roadside puncture repair man.
But it was during the elections that the brothers truly came into their own. I still remember our trip to Nahan during the 2003 Assembly polls. We were on our way back after interviewing the two key rivals when Rana ji voiced his piece. “They will both lose,” he declared, “the first-timer Independent will bag the seat.” Wiser with experience, we went back to interview his man, a liquor baron. Sure enough, he won. While we were busy supping with the bigwigs, Rana ji had gotten his insight from the vox populi.
More recently during the Punjab Assembly polls, he again came out with an interesting find -- the man who had been driving Akali supremo P S Badal for the last 25 years. Trained to be on his guard with the media, the man spoke freely with Rana ji. Later, as we thanked him on the drive back, Rana ji shrugged elaborately. The thing is to connect with your subject, he said sagely. Yet another nugget from our reporter at the wheel.