Remembering V Gangadhar

V Gangadhar, who passed away on 9 October, 2023. Pic courtesy: The Hindu

V Gangadhar was a good teacher to journalism students. He must have taught hundreds of aspirants in Bombay. He was particularly good at bursting myths of what it took to be a good journalist - you do not need a degree in English literature, reporters do not don a kurta with a jhola, leg work will always be important though you can be a smart worker. A fine observer of people, and an objective journalist that he was, he would also add that all of the above could be equally untrue!  

Unlike several other teachers he wouldn't bother to keep on stressing that journalism students need to read everything they can lay their hands on. His attitude was if you do not read why do you want to be a journalist. 

I had the fortune of attending his lectures at Bombay College of Journalism, Churchgate where he would take a weekly class. Gangadhar was a prolific writer, and during that period was a regular columnist for Mid Day, The Daily, Reader's Digest, Hindu. In Mid Day he was the only one at that time to review the media. Every week he would comment on the stories that appeared in other newspapers and occasionally that would also include Mid Day.

Referring to Shilpa Shetty's front page picture in Mid Day holding a tennis racquet, he wrote he was surprised to see it considering the editor himself was a sports journalist who played with a straight bat. Sounds arcane now, isn't it? Bombay Times had not become what it became later, so the front page was still a precious commodity. It was nice of Mid Day to publish both Amita Malik and V Gangadhar who provided a delightful round up of the media scene. I think Malik's was a syndicated column and looked at the national press, while Gangadhar's pieces were Mumbai centric.   

As far as I remember he would come for the lectures with no bags. The only accompaniment would be a book which he would read on the train journeys from his home to Churchgate and back. "I wish I could know more about humour writing in our regional languages. I know about Pu La but of course I cannot read Marathi," he said once while discussing satire and humour in English. 

But Gangadhar was at his best taking us through the rigours of reporting. With some amazement and delight he shared how the Times of India hired lathi-wielding guards for him as he faced risk of assault from the goons of a builder he had exposed. "I am really grateful to the Times." He was on the staff of Times of India in the 1970s, which was pointed out by senior journalist Vidyadhar Date in a Facebook post, but for the students in the class he was only known as a freelance writer. He had left full time work for a long time. 

"There is only that much space at the top so as it happens people branch out," he told me once. I do not know if it was calculated, but inevitably he would share the most delightful piece of gossip just before he would enter the platform at Churchgate station. "Oh they worked so closely, so their relationship was always talked about. But one never knows."  

One constant tip he would give students was to approach news editors for internships and jobs. And what would seem by some of us as too ambitious, he would also suggest writing a piece that could be printed as middle in the TOI. Newspaper editors are always on the lookout for well-written and compelling piece of work he would tell us. Eager to know what he thought of my piece, he said, "Not bad." I gathered that if he had said that twice, it would have meant nice, but I had to make do with a single "Not bad".           

Gangadhar was a simpleton, but had a wide interest. His lectures were peppered by anecdotes of Sunil Dutt's embarrassment to kneel in front of a female star leaving his face in an awkward position in front of the whole film unit, and the challenges of teaching English in Gujarat. After some controversy relating to English language in Gujarat schools, he swiftly wrote a very funny piece in Mid Day explaining why the teaching model of A etla Apple meant Gujaratis had problems in English language skills. A piece he wrote in Outlook was commented upon by Amitabh Bachchan on twitter to the effect that senior journalist Gangadhar did not seem pleased his work/film.

He was also a very humble person. Once he took a few students to the Nehru Centre to attend a discussion which had scholar Rafiq Zakaria as a speaker. After the event he walked up to him, and introduced himself, "Good evening, I am Gangadhar." Rafiq Zakaria replied, array haan bhai Gangadhar, kaise ho. I bumped into him near Lilavati Hospital and was thrilled that he remembed me and had read my reports in Mid Day and Mumbai Mirror.    

Thank you Gangadhar sir for all the lectures, and for warning us that journalism does not pay that well. So many of us still took the plunge.