Behind the stage

December may be the last month of every year but for some young and upcoming musicians and dancers as well as some artists abroad, it is a welcome month. Quite so as this is the time for showing their mettle in the fine-arts world which has also become a highly competitive one.

This is quite cheering. But this natural urge and enthusiasm in them to gain name and fame is misused by some who are supposed to represent the press to earn cheap and easy money. In this festival season, I observed some people thronging an young artist right inside the artist’s room after the performance introducing themselves as press reporters, demanding money for publishing the artist’s photo and an article about the programme. On such occasions, the artists who are not so experienced, in their desperate mood fall easy prey.

I do not know how such so called press people gain easy access to the artist’s room itself without proper identification. I feel that people who represent leading magazines and newspapers will never adopt such mean tactics. What can be done to curb this unhealthy practice requires serious thinking and suggestions by all.