Tribute: How to Contribute to Society- Lessons in Life and Beyond from my Teacher and Mentor, Kiran Thakur

By Abhay Vaidya

Pune, 1st January 2025: My last conversation with Dr Kiran Thakur, the ace journalist and former head of the SPPU’s Department of Communication and Journalism (Ranade Institute), happened less than a fortnight before his untimely demise on 28th December.

We were eager to catch up over tea and share our latest updates and plans for 2025. “Let’s meet later as I am stepping out now, he said and I waited for the next opportune occasion. Such is the extraordinary unpredictability of life that much to my sadness, our meeting never happened.

Almost every month we would speak over the phone and catch up for tea. As I learnt from his loving, hospitable wife Shalakha-tai, he had drawn up points to discuss a number of updates with me. The news of his demise on the morning of December 28 came as a shock. What didn’t surprise me, however, was his wish that his eyes be donated and his body for medical research. Such was ‘KT’—a socially conscious, silent achiever who unceasingly contributed to society, in life and beyond.

Thirtyeight years ago when I had enrolled in the one year Bachelor of Communication and Journalism (BCJ) degree course at the University of Pune’s Ranade Institute, that day looked like any other but proved to be one of the most eventful days of my life. This was 1986. Ours was a fresh new batch and the teachers began their class with self-introduction. The visiting faculty for News Reporting was the United News of India (UNI) Bureau Chief. He wrote his name on the blackboard, his five digit landline number and the address of his office at Madiwale Colony, Tilak Road.

“I cannot pay you,” he said somewhat apologetically, and added, “if anyone of you is interested you can gain experience by spending some time in my office in the evenings.” And the lecture moved on.

Our classes on Laws of the Press; Development Journalism, Editing; Defence Journalism, Feature Writing and other subjects rolled on one by one. Before the week ended I realised that I needed something more beyond the four walls of the classroom.

That was when I flipped the pages of my notebook, picked up the phone and spoke to Kiran Thakur, my teacher in News Reporting. “Sir, I would like to come to your office in the evenings, as you said. Could you tell me when could I begin?”

Soon enough I was climbing up to his third floor office in Madiwale Colony. A largish hall with 2-3 tubelights and ceiling fans. Mr Thakur was seated at his desk in front of his Godrej typewriter with a few piles of papers on the table. Next to him was the small teleprinter room and the clatter of UNI’s teleprinter machines, spewing out news from India and abroad, on rolls of paper, was a constant.

Since news agencies like UNI and PTI competed fiercely against one another and needed to file their stories with speed and accuracy, the Bureau Chiefs of both the agencies stayed in a flat adjoining their office, as did Mr Thakur.

I began taking my first lessons in journalism at this office and without realising it, had jumped into the ocean of journalism. News agencies with a network of correspondents in the country and prominent world capitals constantly fed news to newspapers, small and big; All India Radio and Doordarshan (there were no private TV stations then). Agency journalists were required to be fast and accurate; file crisp copies with short sentences and simple, easy to understand language. Their job was to report the facts and not be judgemental. They were not allowed to write speculative stories based on “sources said.”

After a press conference by a politician or a briefing by the police commissioner, agency reporters like Mr Thakur rushed back to office to file their reports. Their fellow Journalists in newspapers had a relaxed schedule and would file their copies only in the evenings as they had extended deadlines.

As I look back to those days, the discipline of news agency reporting stayed with me throughout my career even as I moved on from newspaper to newspaper. Sub-editors who edit and process a reporter’s copy always appreciate copies being filed early. The discipline that I picked up at UNI helped me later in senior positions at the Times of India, DNA and Hindustan Times, as I would file my special stories by 4 pm max and then be free to vet the copies filed by my team of reporters.

My routine in those early days of journalism education was simple. Classes in the first half and then the UNI office by 4:30 – 5:00 pm. Pressnotes screened by Thakur Sir would be waiting for me which I would turn into short news reports. Soon, I was assigned to attend press conferences and then came talks and lectures by eminent people and other public events.

Agency news reports don’t have a byline– the name of the reporter who filed it– but as agency reporters we took immense pride when a report from our centre was picked up by newspapers across the country with the dateline, Pune (UNI). Such reports ranked high in the daily ‘Impact Report’ generated by our regional office in Mumbai the next morning and that was good work.

This drill continued for about seven months and the journalism course neared its completion. About this time, Mr Thakur made a career shift from UNI to an ambitious newspaper venture, ‘The Indian Post’ launched by the Raymond Group. Edited by the legendary S. Nihal Singh, this newspaper was later edited by Vinod Mehta and made waves in Indian journalism with its exclusive stories and distinctive layout and design as compared to the established Times of India and Indian Express. There were many seasoned journalists who wanted to a part of the Pune Bureau headed by Thakur Sir. To my utter surprise, he offered the job to me, and I reported to duty after giving the last paper in my final exam.

At the journalism institute, it was because of Mr Thakur’s initiative that a UNI teleprinter was installed at the department and we students began making the next day’s ‘Front Page’ and compared it with the Marathi and English dailies the next day. On many occasions our lead story matched with what appeared in The Times of India or Sakal.

Thakur Sir was a friend, mentor and family, and this he was, to many people around him. He was compassionate and he touched numerous lives—be it the teleprinter operator at UNI or the Office Boy. If someone needed help, he went out of his way to try and bring relief.

He was an active member of journalism associations and unions—from the local Pune Union of Working Journalists (PUWJ) to the state and national bodies, and he, along with a core team of senior Pune journalists, was instrumental in raising funds for the Patrakar Bhavan and the Patrakar Pratisthan at Navi Peth. It was under his influence that I, too, became active in the PUWJ.

From the 1990s onwards, the contract system was introduced in the media and journalists were no longer ‘permanent’ in their jobs. Their services could be terminated with a three months’ or one month’s notice. Amidst such turbulence, journalists were forced to change jobs as newspapers like The Indian Post; Observer of Business and Politics; Maharashtra Herald and many others closed down. What was remarkable about Dr Thakur was his ability to reinvent himself in the changing times.

As the years rolled on, he completed his Masters and then Ph.D. in digital journalism; served as Professor and Head of Department at Ranade Institute; undertook research projects at the Mudra Institute of Communications Research, Ahmedabad; taught at Flame University and Vishwakarma University. He also authored a biography on Nanasaheb Parulekar– the legendary founder of Sakal newspaper, and a Handbook on Print Journalism.

Even at age 77 when he breathed his last, he was busy with some interesting project or the other and keen to learn of interesting work happening around him.

His constant endeavour was to contribute to society one way or the other and this he did, not just throughout his life, but even beyond. These are the invaluable lessons that come to mind from the life of Dr Kiran Thakur.

(Abhay Vaidya has worked previously as The Times of India’s Washington Correspondent and Resident Editor at DNA and Hindustan Times)