Shattering another glass ceiling....by AJ Philip on The Tribune getting its first woman editor-in-chief
Chandigarh: One more glass ceiling has been broken. A lady has become the editor-in-chief of the 143-year-old The Tribune. Jyoti Malhotra, who reached this esteemed position, was my colleague at the Indian Express. Later, she became my son’s colleague at the print. in.
When I joined the profession in 1973, there were hardly any women journalists in Delhi. The first woman journalist I saw was Prabha Dutt, mother of Barkha Dutta, who was the chief reporter at the Hindustan Times. She was in many respects a pioneering journalist. When she died, I remember writing an obituary in the fortnightly Caravan where I used to moonlight.
In 1990, when I joined the Delhi edition of the Hindustan Times as an editorial writer, ours was a men’s club into which we welcomed the only lady, Zeenat Imam, who belonged to an aristocratic family of Lucknow. Every Saturday, we would have lunch at the Press Club where she would sip her lime juice while we had Bloody Mary and other concoctions.
Afterwards, I joined the Indian Express where women outnumbered men among the editorial writers. In fact, by the time I left the paper in 2002 to become the first Director of Pratichi (India) Trust, founded by Prof Amartya Sen, I was the only male among the editorial writers.
I missed the Saturday lunch at the Press Club while I was with the IE. My colleagues were fond of South Indian food and we found a joint near the Indian Oil building on the Mehrauli Road. It served authentic Malayali non-vegetarian food.
I had a connection at Kerala House, which I used to organize lunch for my colleagues. Jyoti Malhotra was one among them. She was not exactly an editorial writer but we would often include her in our group. True, she wrote for the edit page occasionally.
Whenever I met her, I remembered another Malhotra. She was Anna Malhotra, who was the first woman to join the Indian Administrative Service. She was Anna George, who fell in love with a Punjabi, RN Malhotra, who later became the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.
I used to imagine that the loss of a Malayali girl to a Punjabi boy was compensated when a Malayali, who was the PTI correspondent in Moscow, Nandan Unnikrishnan, married a blue-blooded Punjabi, Jyoti Malhotra. Unlike Anna, she kept her maiden name. Incidentally, the present Tribune editor’s spouse is also a Malayali.
One of our colleagues at the Indian Express was Santwana Bhattacharya. She was a bright young person with whom I had minimal contact. Ours could be described as a nodding acquaintance.
I had a pleasant surprise when Bhattacharya was appointed editor of the New Indian Express, where I used to write editorials after I left The Tribune. I wrote a piece on her on Facebook at the time of her appointment.
I have worked in many newspapers but I never approached those newspapers seeking writing assignments. To put the record straight, soon after I left The Tribune, I sent a middle which was published. Later, I heard that my former colleague who published it had to suffer on that account.
Again, a few months back when Julio Ribeiro wrote an article in The Tribune, I felt like sending a rejoinder. I called the editor, who told me that I was welcome to contribute but not on the subject that the former police chief handled. I was happy that he was upfront about it.
The Tribune was one newspaper where my reports and columns in the IPA would appear regularly in the early seventies. Its editor Madhavan Nair was a close friend of IPA editor OP Sabharwal and he would visit our office every time he came to Delhi for official work.
I was fascinated by his white ambassador car which had ‘The Tribune’ written on the number plate. As providence would have it, I had the same kind of car with a red beacon light on top eliciting a salute from traffic constables.
When I joined The Tribune, it was the leading English newspaper in Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu. I do not know what its position is now. I hope and pray that The Tribune grows from strength to strength.
May 8, 2024
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AJ Philip, Senior Journalist and Columnist
ajphilip@gmail.com
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