Why is the Press Club of India’s most prominent portrait that of a foreigner?
It hangs above the club’s stately wooden staircase, overlooking the mid-landing. In the black-and-white photograph, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is raising a hand in greeting. A plaque describes him as the Father of the Nation of Bangladesh.
Upstairs is the explanation. One of the halls there is called the Bangabandhu Media Centre. It was inaugurated in 2021 by a visiting Bangladeshi minister to mark the 50th anniversary of his nation’s independence. The portrait was unveiled at the same time.
The members-only Press Club of India is a classic Delhi institution. Located at 1, Raisina Road, in the heart of Central Delhi and close to the seat of power, it has long been woven into the capital’s journalistic life. The club’s wooden staircase, with polished handrails and wood panelling, evokes the grandeur of an old exclusive club. The small reception, however, is disarmingly casual. The wall here bears the year of the club’s founding: 1958. The cat sitting in the corner is Shera, the receptionist says.
The courtyard beyond the reception is called a lawn, though it is paved and has no grass. It is deserted this rainy evening. Otherwise, the evening is half-won if you can find an empty table. A regular says beat reporters gather in the lawn after sundown for a tipple, waiting to see what becomes of the stories they have handed to the desk. Across the tables, the gossip ranges widely, from which reporter is close to which politician to who is about to move to which media house. No matter how absorbed the conversation, heads turn briefly whenever someone enters the lawn. The more watchful try to pick up whiffs of a rival’s forthcoming scoop. The collective murmur hangs steadily in the air, along with the smell of fried snacks. Bun shami is as loved as the sweet firni. Many swear by egg on toast.
{{/usCountry}}The courtyard beyond the reception is called a lawn, though it is paved and has no grass. It is deserted this rainy evening. Otherwise, the evening is half-won if you can find an empty table. A regular says beat reporters gather in the lawn after sundown for a tipple, waiting to see what becomes of the stories they have handed to the desk. Across the tables, the gossip ranges widely, from which reporter is close to which politician to who is about to move to which media house. No matter how absorbed the conversation, heads turn briefly whenever someone enters the lawn. The more watchful try to pick up whiffs of a rival’s forthcoming scoop. The collective murmur hangs steadily in the air, along with the smell of fried snacks. Bun shami is as loved as the sweet firni. Many swear by egg on toast.
{{/usCountry}}Inside the main dining hall, a bar competes for attention with a giant TV screen playing the news on mute. A corner table is reserved for veteran members over 85, unclaimed at the moment. A framed photograph from the club’s inaugural day shows minister G. B. Pant with Durga Das, editor of the Hindustan Times and the club’s founding president, and D. R. Mankekar, editor of the Times of India and the club’s first secretary general. The photograph evokes a world when newspapers were printed from metal type, readers speculated about what would make the next cover of a news magazine, and journalism was a specialised profession.
Today, anyone with a mobile and a social-media account can fancy themselves a one-person media house. That is on display this evening in the club’s packed Conference Hall, where a news website is being inaugurated. Young attendees are livestreaming the proceedings on their phones—or, in the old language of journalism—reporting live from the Press Club.
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