Being a late starter one wasted a good many years in doing scientific research, or to put it another way never went beyond the Inter Science. My dad wanted me to become a doctor like himself but that was well beyond me. It was only after switching to Arts that the tide turned.
I still remember being fascinated by the teleprinter in the “Indian Express” office at Sassoon Docks where I had gone for an interview with my soon-to-be boss S. Krishnamurthy or SKM for short. Was also told by the lovable but very cynical sports scribe not to “waste my time here.”
Rip, as he was fondly called, knew me because he covered my exploits on the hockey field. He was a dark Anglo-Indian though most of the Express staff were South Indians. Later on one chided them saying that the newspaper was to be named “South Indian Express” but as ‘South’ didn’t fit in the masthead it remained “Indian Express.”
My first byline story on page 1 was “The shrinking bread story” and it seemed appropriate being “a paowalla” myself. I also did some exposes like “The towing racket” involving the Bombay traffic police and as a result of which the chief of traffic police was transferred. The chief sent a message to me saying to watch out and he promised to beat me up. In those distant mid-1970s there was no protection for journos. So I decided to grow a beard as a form of disguise. I soon got fond of it as it was quite cozy. In fact I still have it even if it has turned grey in memory of the transferred traffic chief.
The 1960s and 1970s were the best days of journalism before “Paid news” courtesy Times of India found its way into popular journalism. I also did a piece on the “Vanishing Furnace Oil” thanks to tampering with the Dockyard pipelines. It also got me visited by Central Bureau Of Investigation (CBI) officials for any more info. The tip for this story I picked up at a party with an old college mate. In those days our nose was ever ready to pickup any story. When I was away for the Berlin film festival in 1978 I got a story of refugees crossing into Berlin because of their lenience following the Nazi era.
With foreign films being my specialty I visited Cannes, the Mecca of cinema, Oberhaussen and other Indian festivals and was a appointed as a member of the Indian Censor Board and also on the National awards panel and even Chairman of the Mumbai International festival (MIFF) for Documentary,Short and Animation films in 2004.
During my 24-year tenure at “Indian Express” I had to fight a number of issues. My cinema column was stopped for exposing Twentieth Century-Fox for contravening the Monopoly Restrictive Trade Practices Act. It was only after a concerted battle which included going on protest leave that it was finally restored. In fact the Editor-in-Chief B.G. Verghease also told me he was happy to do so.
But may be my greatest story was exposing the “Sanctimonious Arun Shourie who took action against me in order to curry favour with the new chief Vivek Goenka. So much water has flowed under the bridges of time but I still would not want to be in any other profession. It was better to be fired by RNG than praised by his grandson Vivek who was a mere pygmy in contrast.
