Former Indian Express scribe Vijayaraghavan dies

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: R Vijayaraghavan, 71, former editor at the Department of Communication and Journalism (DCJ), University of Kerala, died on Monday morning. The cremation was held at Santhikavadom He was residing at ‘The Quarter Deck’ at Jawahar Nagar in the city. Vijayaraghavan belongs to the first batch of the DCJ. After a brief stint with the Navy, he started his journalism career as a junior to the correspondent of ‘The Baltimore Sun’. He had served as sub-editor and cartoonist in the ‘March of the Nation Weekly’ and ‘Everyman’s Weekly’.

Later, he worked as supervising editor at the ‘International Express Weekly’. He lost his job during the Emergency and shifted his base from Delhi to Kerala. He then served at the Kochi editorial of Indian Express and later worked as a reporter in the Thiruvananthapuram bureau. During his stint at the DCJ, he was editor of journalism students’ practice newspapers Univ Voice and Kalari. He had also served as a faculty member of the Institute of Journalism, Press Club.

He is survived by wife Jayasree, sons Sooraj Saroop Raghavan, Aditya Manjith Raghavan, daughter-in-law Anju Manjith Raghavan. Vijayaraghavan is the greatgrandson of Divan Peshkar K N Govindan and the son of retired district judge N Raghavan and Vijaya Raghavan, head of Carnatic Music, Government Women ’s College, Thiruvananthapuram.