How do newspapers or journals acquire their reputations? In good measure, due to the contribution of simple, talented people. Vijay Tendulkar wrote a column daily for a full year for Maharashtra Times in its initial year in the 1960s which became very popular.
The editor who encouraged him was D.B. Karnik who was related to Vijaya Mehta (then Vijaya Jayawant) whom Tendulkar knew because she directed his early plays for Rangayan group.
The column called Kowali Unhe (Kachhi dhoop or tender sunlight) was a reflection on various issues. Tendulkar wrote about this some years later. This was his period of struggle, he was jobless and used to spend much of days as a flaneur, an aimless walker, observer in the Fort area unaware perhaps that he was following a great literary tradition of Paris. And in the evening he used to go to Bhulabhai Institute for rehearsals of his play. This was the venue of the great flowering of Indian art and music and dance with the likes of Hussain and Ravi Shankar.
The Times building was full of big names in literature and journalism from various publications in different languages. These are the people and other contributors who built the reputations of these publications.
Some times Tendulkar used to walk into Karnik’s office in the Times building and Karnik used to welcome him warmly - with words like Yaa Maharaj and they used to chat over a cup of tea.
The Times building was full of big names in literature and journalism from various publications in different languages.
These are the people and other contributors who built the reputations of these publications.
And then came some people who grabbed all this goodwill, turned everything upside down, built an empire of wealth while treating with contempt the intellectual labour that laid the foundation for the institution. So the money is there but the soul is gone.