Senior journalist TVR Shenoy passes away

Senior journalist TVR Shenoy who served as the editor of the weekly news magazine The Week and Sunday Mail passed away in Manipal on Tuesday at the age of 77.

He is survived by his wife Sarojam , a son and daughter. His body will be brought to Delhi on Wednesday and will be kept at the Kerala House on Thursday for people to pay final respects.

Shenoy who was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2003 contributed to several national and international newspapers and websites and wrote on issues ranging from politics, economy to international affairs.

Describing him as an erudite journalist, Sachidananda Murthy, resident editor of The Week said Shenoy was “a living encyclopedia” because of his knowledge of various subjects.

“Between 1991 and 1993 he exposed several banking and stock market scams including the Harshad Mehta scam (the securities scam) and it led to the prosecution of several in the banking and share market sectors,” Murthy said.

Shenoy, who also wrote columns on political-economy for Gulf News and Mathrubhumi, played an active role in preserving the freedom of press during Emergency and when the government in 1988 tried to bring the defamation bill, Murthy said and added:“He was a good motivator for young people and had the best private library in Delhi”.

Senior journalist Debashish Mukherji said Shenoy had “extraordinary knowledge on facts not confined to politics. He knew about history, geek mythology, literature including Indian classical literature. And he was an outstanding story teller.”

Editorial director of the Sunday Guardian, MD Nalapat remembered Shenoy as a person who “never tried to pull anyone down and had a great sense of humour”.

“His sense of humour saw him through some bad times. He even disagreed with others in a pleasant way; never rubbing his opinion on others or making them feel small. Another thing about him was that he had a large number of friends and he retained them,” Nalapat said.