Like you, I have never heard of Russi (Russy) Karanjia, nor seen Blitz (the now defunct tabloid). Seems Russi, the patriarch of Blitz passed away this week, and his deputy at Blitz for a long time P.Sainath has an obituary in today’s Hindu. A piece of writing with a lot of life in it, a very nice read.
Like when I stopped the practice of the pin-up girl on the Last Page. A handwritten note from Karanjia to me ran: “Dear Sainath, now that we are emulating the Vatican Gazette, do you have any further ideas to perk up the paper?”
Karanjia’s unfailing look at the funny side of everything rubbed off on the rest of us. Blitz never lost its sense of fun even when threatened or attacked physically. This was an office where crank callers were welcome entertainment and those hurling death threats were baffled by the response they got. As my late colleague Habib Joosab told one caller: “No, you cannot kill us Mondays or Tuesdays. Those are our press days, don’t you know we’re busy?”
very nice read…thanks for that! wish sainath would write more of such stuff…i remember reading his obituary of k.r.narayanan and that was good too…didn’t know and eitherways wouldnt believe blitz was where he earned his spurs because the sainath i have read, writes about people and places no tabloid of today will venture to cover!
I had marked this article for reading but somehow it skipped my mind. Thank You. And here is the obituary to K R Narayanan.
http://www.hindu.com/2005/11/11/stories/2005111107231100.htm
And is this Jiby, the guy whom I know, by any chance.
Jiby, but in the article, did you notice he says Blitz taught them how to make big stories of small people.
Naga, Yeah, everyone is a Loyolite!
Sainath seems to be another power hungry guy,another Ellsworth Monkton Toohey.This is my blog post on Sainath relating to NREGA.
http://memorymaniac.blogspot.com/2008/06/lets-create-unemployment.html