“A man who has built himself from scratch with immense hard work and an extremely workaholic man. An idol for most employees at the workplace and same goes for me, with whom I have worked for over 10 years at India’s first international newspaper – The Asian Age. Working in MJ Akbar’s office handling his day-to-day paperwork along with organising his meetings and appointments with every person in and out. I was closely in charge at managing his office, I am quoting this again and again to shout out on the version of MJ Akbar, that is known to me after working for him from 1993-2003.
His small plywood cubical in Suryakiran office where a person could barely stand is not a hidden space behind which any sort of event could be hidden. He has been someone who can get up to help any employee be it learning how to type or how to build relationships with employees. At the same time he will scold you and the entire office will know that someone is getting grilled today for some mistake. I would like to put my experiences forth and comment on the version of MJ Akbar, which is contrary to what is coming out in the #Metoo Campaign. I Rachna Grover am putting this forth as an experience of another co-worker.”
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“I joined The Asian Age in December 1998, when the office was housed in Surya Kiran, a multi-storeyed building on Kasturba Gandhi Marg. The office was a tiny little place, with cardboard-thin partitions and without any cabins, except for the editor-in-chief’s, which too was small. Space was such a problem that the news desk used to be on a separate floor, in another small office, while the Features, Bureau and Opinion section, that is us, used to sit on the same floor as the editor-in-chief.After a few weeks, the office shifted to bigger premises in South Extension. We had more space then, a proper two-floor house. Jayeeta Basu she is executive editor Sunday Guardian.