How O’Connor’s Goose Was Cooked
Nina Varghese
4 April 2008, 08:29The day Sean O’Connor joined the Daily Mail was a busy one for photographers. The former chief minister had been arrested and the entire press fraternity, even business reporters who were not acknowledged as legitimate members of the press corps, was outside her residence.
Twelve of the fourteen Daily group photographers, including the one from the Daily Courier- the business daily, were out there chasing the story. It was Sean O’Connor, the new photo editor’s order. The best picture would go on page one, he said.
O’Connor was a tall, large, untidy Irishman in his mid thirties with a mop of sandy brown hair and he had joined the Daily group after stints at Reuters and AFP. The next day, he presided over the post mortem. He asked Salim, the junior-most photographer to lay out the day’s crop of photographs on the table. “All laid,” called out Salim.
“That’s the only thing he can lay” muttered Mithun Bannerjee, the Courier’s photographer to Rajan Menon, the sports photographer. But the sniggering and snide remarks soon died out, as O’Connor got down to business and by the time he was done dissecting the photographs, he had made many enemies.
“Don’t think that any shit will go on the paper,” O’Connor said as he stalked out of the photo department.
But within weeks, the quality of the photographs which appeared in the Daily group newspapers improved. The Editor was very happy, particularly so, when Rajesh Gupta the chairman of Continental Cements remarked about it after a round of golf.
“So where did you pick up this fellow”.
“I met him in a photo exhibition in London, we got talking and I asked him to come over and help us out.”
“Did you do a background check on him,” asked Gupta.
“Not really, if he is a bad egg, it would show up sooner than later”, said the Editor.
But there were no complaints. His personal work was also very good. Within months of joining the Daily, O’Connor did a photo essay on child prostitution which caused quite a stir. All this caused a lot of stomach burn in the photo department. The most affected, of course, was the chief photographer, Charu Karan, who got sidelined by O’Connor’s arrival.
Everyone wondered why such a talented photographer wanted to live and work in the boondocks, for a salary which on an international scale, was a pittance. He could have got a job in a newspaper in London or New York or any one of the wire services. Others argued that maybe he wanted to take things easy. After all, you could live like a king in India with this salary. Some others said that he had a Tamilian girl friend. There was betting going on as to how long he would be the favourite of the bosses.
Then, like all good things coming to an end, O’Connor’s reign in the photo department also came to an abrupt end. His meeting with the Editor or selection of topic for the photo essay was not happenstance. It soon became apparent that Irishman did have an agenda. He would stay late in the photo department and was very secretive about the pictures he was uploading. Salim, who was often on late shift had seen the kind of pictures O’Connor had on the screen.
“Full jillpangs,” Salim said.
A few weeks later, around six in the evening, Bannerjee and Rajan Menon who were going out for a cup of tea saw a strange sight. Sean O’Connor was pleading with the security to let him enter the office. “Go ask the Editor, these are his orders” said the security man. Just then the Editor came out of the building, his car drew up and the big man got in. O’Connor ran up to the car and tried to tap on the glass but the Editor was looking straight ahead. The car swept out of the compound with O’Connor running behind.
Then another of the company’s directors came out and O’Connor chased that car and all the ones that came after. The security men watched the drama with impassive faces.
“Don’t laugh; it could be you or me. All the same, I wonder what happened” said Bannerjee.
There are many theories as to why O’Connor fell from grace. But Bannerjee’s version seemed to be the closest to the truth. Apparently, O’Connor’s was supplying adult web sites with pictures. He was now specializing in ‘South Indian Hot Numbers’. One of his favourite models also happened to be Rajesh Gupta’s daughter, whose professional name was Meera. So when Gupta saab accessed his favourite site, he was shocked to see his daughter’s face on a body that performed the most mind boggling acts. When he recovered from the initial shock, Gupta saab had also lost his enthusiasm. “Damn, that wretched girl, she has spoiled all my fun,” he said.
He then sat down and wrote an anonymous note to this wife, about the girl’s escapades. Later, he also made a couple of phone calls.
The girl on questioning, confessed and O’Connor goose was cooked.
