With democracy's biggest festival all set to get into overdrive mode, news channels, fledgling and veteran, are rubbing their hands in gleeful anticipation of a share of the action.

The busybees at their peak Pic by Sanjay Sharma/Indiapix Network

For news channels this is a welcome change, an infusion of energy and excitement into drab daily weather reports and human interest stories. Election time brings with it not just a wave of political debates, endless opinion polls and satirical programmes, but tends to turn a news channel's life completely upside down. For news channel employees, this means sleepless nights to non stop traveling.

This election is probably the first of its kind for the media business. There are six - yes six mainline news channels - fighting a battle among themselves, not far from the political war being fought on the electoral battlefront. Add to that the regional language channels and the election related programming on almost every channel of note. At the time of the previous elections there were just two news channels.

This time, each, save a couple of players, is a rookie as far as the election coverage business is concerned. But that's not holding anyone back - each of them has drawn up programming and marketing plans in order to attract that extra eyeball, to squeeze out that additional rupee from advertisers.

The elections bring with them another first as far as the news channels are concerned. At test is their credibility, their ability to make sense of the numbers, and analyse and predict trends.This apart the forthcoming polls are expected to truly provide an interface between politicians and the common voter.

So far, the staff at news channels - be they managers or reporters or editors - are showing that they are up to the challenging task. No matter what the election package entails for them, the crews are at their best behaviour, putting their best foot ---- or gun microphones --- forward, while suffering out the high pressure, high tension atmosphere.

Ajay Sharma - Host, National reporter

Says Star News anchor Ajay Sharma, "Election time is a trigger happy time, you're just into it with all your gusto and you put forth all you have."

An outsider would assume that it is a sorry state of affairs with work timings and deadline pressures crazier than ever, but the insiders are brimming with joy at this rare event knocking on their door. Most reporters say elections become the much awaited change as suddenly routine reporting and anchoring becomes more intense and very exciting. On a lighter note, most wish this period would not conclude and hope to see a hung Parliament!!!

The metamorphosis that channels undergo is immense during this key phase. Here's how -

I want my sleep, I want my life!

Rajiv Bajaj's tete a tete with the political gliterratti

Well, not exactly. With the onset of elections, most schedules and lifestyles of news broadcast employees have taken a toss. Their average working day now stretches to about 14 - 16 hours and is bustling with high pressure activities. Sahara Samay Mumbai Head Rajiv Bajaj says "I sleep for 45 minutes in a day, maybe one hour." His colleague and head of Sahara Samay Rashtriya, Arup Ghosh, concurs when he says that while travelling, hopping from one city to another, a sense of timelessness creeps in. "It's quite bizarre. Suddenly you wake up from a five minute nap at an airport and wonder where you are," he points out.

While others could be catching a wee bit more of sleep than that, the balancing act of filial responsibilities, physical fitness and work definitely demands a tight rope walk from news channel folk.

Points out Sanjay Pande, associate editor of Zee news, "Yes, we have to work odd hours. Flexibility in terms of time is required in these types of situations."

The phase is also accompanied by a manpower crunch, as elections are the biggest story of the day and reporters on every beat have additional baggage of their own specialized beats plus elections based reports.

Sreenivasan Jain - NDTV Mumbai chief

NDTV Mumbai bureau chief Sreenivasan Jain says, "Election time means doing quite a lot of strategizing to ensure that people continue to cover those areas and those beats as well as elections, a fairly tricky exercise. But so far so good, it's worked out okay."

DD News Consulting Editor Deepak Chaurasia, while pointing out that manpower crunch would be an understatement, says it's "acute." For example, DD News has just five people for every 15 that have been employed by private satellite channels.

Chaurasia contemplating election strategy.

"Under such circumstances, one has to make the best of the worst even if we are launching newer programmes for the elections and all of them in-house," Chaurasia sighs indicating that, probably, all's not-so-hunky-dory at DD News that had been relaunched with a grand promise of making "garbage" of others.

A lot of outsourcing has also been resorted to at this time, taking into consideration the 543 constituencies that need to be covered.

Family - What's that all about?

Stark realities!

Working for a 24 hour news channel anyway does not permit anyone to have a sound family life. But during election time, all filial affiliations have to be kept in suspended animation. At times even health gets neglected. Most reporters say they thrive on quality
and not quantity of time spent with their better halves and others in the family.

Jain adds, "My family at the moment is my wife, who also travels on assignments, so we're used to that. But obviously, we have got to accept that this phase is going be pretty crazy. I would say this is an occupational hazard. We both knew what we were getting into when we joined television."

Gaurav Banerjee -Star News psephologist

Star News anchor Gaurav Banerjee says, "To be very honest, it is tough, but everyone knows it's the Olympics, so even your family is watching you and I get calls saying you did this right and you did this wrong. So, they are involved too."

Family participation is, of course, a big boost to the reporter's morale during these pressing times. Also, most TV people feel that families are understanding and also have resigned to the fact that this is how life is going to be. Chaurasia thanks his luck for being married to a woman who's also from the same profession and understands the "rigours of the trade."

Deep Upadhyay, a producer with Zee News and part of the election desk tries to offer a simple remedy. "During off days, we try to give them (family members) as much time as possible." Easier said than done?

High on stress, high on excitement too.

On a joy ride with stress levels peaking!- Pic by Sanjay Sharma/Indiapix Network

Peaking stress levels are another eminent feature during this crazy phase. There is stress and pressure galore, but it's an anticipated hazard. As, this is where people are watching you, this is where news is made and this where history is recreated.

This is a good time to be in a news room with everybody really excited and charged showing tremendous enthusiasm. "A good thing about having a young team is that they have more energy and their enthusiasm works on oldies like me too as Viagra," good naturedly the just-turned-40 Ghosh points out, which is an indicator to the fact that experience does have to be supplemented with the vigour of youth in newsrooms at such times.

The other key fixation about elections in India is that television news has always been co-terminus with elections. That's when Indians first experienced the idea of watching a news related programme continuously.

Blaring voices, people at each others' throats and sparks of insanity are the normal idiosyncrasies of a news room. During election time, it multiplies manifold.

Operations! When the going gets tough, the tough get tougher…

PCR - The backbone of live TV

Well, the operations side of the story is also a tale of the brave hearts. With live programming now a part and parcel of news channels, the significance of the
operations or production crews has jumped by leaps and bounds.

During election time, the crew is trained to remain cool and calm, numb to their overwrought surroundings. These people have an uphill task, especially the program control room (PCR) crew, who are the unsung heroes of what gets delivered finally on air. One wrong button, one minor gaffe and oops, it's just too late. The error flashes live on air.

So, during elections with the constant influx of news from various parts of the country, live programming gets all the more complex.

Star News head of operations Vynsley Fernandes says, "During elections when the pressure and the tension are at their peak, we ensure that our crew works for two hours and takes an hour's break and then comes back on board. So two crews alternate the whole day. It is simply impossible for a person to sit in the PCR and continue to deliver on air for four-six hours straight."

Though Zee News' Upadhyay brazens it out saying, "Crew and programming people try to give in their best even during tough times," Sahara Rashtriya's Kamal Dixit, producer (operations), does admit that during times like elections, "the technical team bears a major portion of the pressure" as even a small glitch can mar a good programming.

Generally, the crew tends to work double shifts during peak periods, as it's impossible to work six hours together in a very high tension, high stress situation. People are sent for coffee breaks, food is provided.

Politics and Election time go hand in hand

The poll game does bring out the menace in one and many. With elections being the most sought after story and with almost everybody covering it, it does pave the way for internal politics and competition. Without spelling it out in detail, DD News' Chaurasia does admit that at times "negative feelings" could be felt.

Now, this also tells a tale that may reflect on the managers and seniors responsible to keep their flock in order during crunch times.

Uday Shankar - Nourishing his new born baby

Explains Star News editor and director of news Uday Shankar, "This (politicking) will happen only if you do not do role allocation properly and design people's roles. We have functional groups around functions and tasks and everybody knows what they are supposed to do."

Most others, however, did confirm that competition increases, but added in the same vein that it's a mammoth task to ensure that it does not degenerate into politics that could, in turn, affect the performance of the channel. "Nowadays, one also sees reporters and people on the desk having political affiliations trying to push in a report, but ultimately it all evens out if one is clear and objective as a journalist."

I am immortality personified?!?

How long does one go on with kind of a lifestyle? Does one ever reach the burn out stage? Says Chaurasia, "Certainly one cannot go on forever. To give you my own example, for the last one and half years that I have been detected with diabetes, I haven't been able to do much. With the kind of lifestyle that one leads, it is very difficult to keep such ailments under control."

Apart from health issues which become a great cause for concern, the family also suffers. One can't continue working in live news at the same pace and at the top and expect to go home at five in the evening. So, the risk of facing a burn out is pretty high in this extremely aggressive profession, say those spoken to.

" TV is a punishing medium" - Arup Ghosh

Still, Sahara's Ghosh points out, "TV is a punishing medium, but it has its rewards too.If you are a professional, you'll adapt." An apt summation!

All in all, it is the time of challenge and show of strength. A vivacious time to show competence, to make yourself a brand name. And for the people behind the screen, a shot at glory that comes just once in five years!