As I approached the Bureau Chief in his narrow cubicle with a story idea, I noticed a person sitting on a chair opposite him engaging in some friendly banter. It was early evening in autumn of 1997. The windowless office of the Financial Express was in the famous Indian Express building on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg in the national capital.
The structure radiated power – it was after all the storied newspaper that had a history of taking on the high and mighty. The steps leading up to the foyer from the road had witnessed many an agitation by the workmen. Powerful politicians were known to walk up and enter to meet Shekhar Gupta, the then Editor of the newspaper-who also ran the business side of the Indian Express. The spirit of the late Ramnath Goenka seemed to pervade the air. The intellectual calibre and writing acumen of Arun Shourie inspired young entrants to the profession.
It was a different era and a world apart.
As I waited for Veeshal Bakshi’s verdict on my story pitch, the person piped up – “Is this the way you meet your boss? You should remain standing.” My jaw dropped as I fumbled for an answer to this rude interjection. The moment seemed frozen in time and just as I was about to answer, the person spoke again: “Relax! I am just pulling your leg”.
Smiling away at my discomfort, Veeshal introduced the person. “Meet Sunil Jain. He is the Business Editor of the Indian Express.”
That was the first time I met Sunil.
He carried himself with the air of an academic who had learnt to box in school. The suppressed pugilist in him surfaced every now and then, with the preferred choice being words and not fisticuffs.
In a few months, I was put on the nascent telecom beat and asked to cover the fledgling industry that went on to become one of the biggest sectors that drove the Indian growth story. And like all things Indian, controversy became its leitmotif. Sunil, my elder by many years, had a deep interest in this beat. His passion for the infrastructure sector followed closely (the late Gajendra Haldea was to become his favourite source for stories on India’s tryst with good roads).
Telecom saw me develop a good relationship with Sunil. I moved on from the Express to another power address – the Hindustan Times (HT) in 2000 – in the process declining Shekhar’s offer to stay on. Sunil moved too and we stayed in touch. He chronicled the controversies on telecom in the style of the Express while I reported on the success of the industry in kickstarting a revolution of sorts. During this time, Sunil declined a generous offer to head the business bureau of HT, a paper led to great heights by master wordsmith Vir Sanghvi.
Years later, we worked together again – this time in the Business Standard (BS), the finest macro-economy newspaper in India that was helmed by the great TN Ninan. By now Sunil’s writing had become even sharper, his canvass wider and his repertoire wide-ranging. There wasn’t a subject he could not write on and his education in economics meant that he could marry the political with the arcane. Data crunching was a strength that he expressed through his weekly statistical graphic in the BS, which was a must read for even the IMF resident economist in India.
As for me, Sunil was of the firm belief that I had wasted my MBA by becoming a journalist. He frequently told me and another colleague – Nayantara Rai, now a famous anchor with ET Now – that we could make money dealing in real estate!
Sunil was a collaborator in the newsroom, even as he sparred with outsiders.
The late Arun Jaitley, gifted with the gab like few others, was an admirer, who would regale Sunil with anecdotes of his memories of his venerable father, the late Giri Lal Jain, a titan among Indian journalists. In that sense, Sunil was an insider to the workings of the power and policy apparatus, having witnessed it first-hand from his childhood and during his education before he followed in his father’s footsteps.
Such was his clout and understanding that it was whispered that a legendary Delhi-based corporate honcho would call him to gauge his mind about the budget every year, and then pass on the views to his bosses. Another top Indian conglomerate is said to have always put his name on top of the list whenever a big shot from Bombay would come calling.
Fame was relative to Sunil. A robust debate on a print story made him happier than a television appearance.
I end with an eyewitness account of the questions that he posed to the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi during an Editor’s Roundtable at the Business Standard. Aditi Phadnis, then the Political Editor of the newspaper, had pulled off a coup by bringing Modi to meet a few of us. The debate was intense and Sunil’s engagement among the most vociferous.
I too got to ask a question regarding the then central BJP leadership’s stance of vociferously opposing Manmohan Singh’s policies on disinvestment and the India-US civil nuclear deal.
As we met near the water cooler after the nearly two-hour meeting with Modi, Sunil let me know his thoughts on the question I had posed. “That was a sharp point and that’s why the BJP cannot win easily”, he said. Seven years later Modi defied expectations and accomplished that very thing!
That was the Sunil I would like to remember: a person never modest with an opinion, rational or irrational.
Be well in the beyond, my friend, and do tell the Gods that enough is enough and no more good people should die at the hands of this deadly virus.
Disclaimer: The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not in any way represent the views of exchange4media.com
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