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Shiv Aroor talks about his experience of covering Libyan Civil War with Gaurav Sawant in 2011 at Sahitya AajTak

New Delhi : India Today Senior Executive Editor Shiv Aroor shared his experience of covering the Libyan Civil War in 2011 with Managing Editor Gaurav Sawant. He talked about how the Libyans have immense respect for Indian journalists.
You have heard several journalists reporting live from war zones. Some have also penned their experiences of covering these wars in books which give vivid information about the challenges they have faced.
India Today Senior Executive Editor Shiv Aroor shared his experience of covering the Libyan Civil War in 2011 with Managing Editor Gaurav Sawant. He talked about how the Libyans have immense respect for Indian journalists. The journalists were speaking at Sahitya Aaj Tak 2022 and their session was titled Shaurya Gatha.
Here are excerpts from the session:
Talking about his experience in Libya, Shiv Aroor said, “The experience that I have in terms of covering war and conflict, there is no comparison to what Gaurav and Shweta have. Their experience is absolutely top gear.
Now, the experience that Gaurav and I have, let me give you an example of Libya. Libya is the kind of country that no one ever visits. A lot of people do not even know where the country is. Gaurav and I had gone there during the conflict in 2011.
What we saw there was an immense amount of respect for India. Let me just give you an example. Gaurav and I were separated there. The rebels there had kidnapped Gaurav. We were assured that we would get good visuals of the battleground and Gaurav was lured into going with them.
Following that, we had no contact with him for 2 days.”So, what happened next, you ask? Well, Gaurav was told by the embassy in Egypt that, “Whenever you are in some kind of trouble remember these words, Sahafi Al-Hind.”
The meaning of this is ‘Indian journalist’. Gaurav used these two “magic words” and this is how situations changed and he returned safe and sound. Gaurav Sawant was in Kargil in 1999 and was covering the war there.
Talking about Captain Vikram Batra, the journalist said, “During those days, mobile phones had just come and very few people owned one. We used to have a satellite phone. We were told that a one-minute call would cost us Rs 500-700.
So, we used to save it so that we could use it only to share important news and updates from the battleground. But, how would you get those stories? It was when we used to sit down with the jawans. Some of them were getting ready for the operation while others were coming back from the same.
The situation there used to be precarious, but these jawans used to call their families and tell them that they were fine in Shimla but here, they were in Kargil fighting a war. These are some of the incidents that I witnessed there is a part of my book Dateline Kargil.
And Captain Vikaram Batra used to take my phone and talk to his girlfriend Dimple. This we could write about what he used to talk and also their love story that even till this day she did not marry.
About Sahitya Aajtak
A confluence of various literature forms – poetry, prose, music and drama – the festival is a part of Aaj Tak’s endeavour to highlight the importance of art and literature in today’s era. The fest brings together a diverse mix of marquee writers, scholars, authors, musicians, actors, columnists, business leaders, poets and theatre artists, who have made their mark across audiences with their work over the years.
They will unite again on a single platform to express their views openly and engage in meaningful dialogues about the nature of art, culture and literature in the world, and the indelible imprint they leave on the minds and hearts of people.
 

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