Fwd: Vinod Mehta, the Last Great Editor, 1942-2015

[Frederick FN Noronha फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या *فريدريك نورونيا‎]

Dear all: We were sharing and commenting on this via the Goajourno mailing list. Vinod Mehta was an editor I admire/d hugely; and have both his very readable autobiographies. I just realised my mistake in not posting this to the Goa Book Club!

There is a very strong Goa connect.

Mehta, in his Lucknow Boy, credits our very own GBC member -- Luis Santa Rita Vas, the Bombay/Mumbai-based brother of Isabel Santa Rita Vas -- with getting him started with writing. Luis suggested to Vinod that he write a biography of Sanjay Gandhi, when he (Luis) was at  Jaico's, then one of the few and active book publishing houses in India! Of course, Vinod Mehta got to writing that book without ever meeting Sanjay. The rest, as they say, is history.... He got picked up as an editor because of his reputation, in part, built by that book. And went on to redefine the shape of Indian journalism!

This is to pay a tribute to Luis, as much as to Vinod -- a dream editor, as anyone who even crossed his path tangentially (as I did) would know.

FN

Vinod Mehta, the Last Great Editor, 1942-2015 by churumuri

sans serif records with deep regret the passing of the Editorial Chairman of Outlook magazine, Vinod Mehta, in New Delhi on Sunday, 8 March 2015. He was 73 years old and had been ailing for some time.

He leaves behind his wife Sumita Paul, their canine companion, “Editor”, two brothers and a sister---and legions of orphaned colleagues, compatriots and competitors.

As the founding Editor-in-Chief of Outlook, Mr Mehta re-energised Indian magazine journalism with a freshness of approach, an openness of spirit, and a lightness of touch.

All through his long innings as editor, writer and a television talking head, Mr Mehta brought trademark wit, candour, and non-partisanship to the table, endearing him to readers and viewers, and to friends and foes, across the country and across the globe.

Rare is the rival who can’t find a good word.

Editor from the day he stepped into journalism from the advertising world in 1974, Mr Mehta’s first job was as editor of the monthly men’s magazine, Debonair. He founded India’s first weekly newspaper, The Sunday Observer, from where he went on to edit The Indian Post and The Independent in what was then Bombay.

Mr Mehta moved to Delhi in the early 1990s, when he became Editor-in-Chief of The Pioneer, but his 17-year helmsmanship of Outlook magazine was his longest tenure.

He was president of the Editors Guild of India and was, briefly, the writer and presenter of “Letter from India” on the BBC World Service and BBC Radio 4.

Born in Rawalpindi and brought up in Lucknow, the self-proclaimed “BA, second class” was the author of six books, three of which were biographies (Bombay, Sanjay Gandhi and Meena Kumari), two were memoirs (Lucknow Boy and Editor Unplugged), one was a compilation (Mr Editor, how close are you to the PM?”).

An undisguised cricket fanatic and foodie, Mr Mehta was a magnet of tasteful gossip which he deftly let loose into the system through his widely read diaries on the last page of Outlook.

Mr Mehta disliked hyperbole and big words. His motto in journalism was to make the important interesting, but Indian journalism is decidedly poorer today with the disappearance of a lodestar of professional integrity, on whom could easily be placed the sobriquet The Last Great Editor.

Photograph: Vinod Mehta (left) with Deepak Shourie and Jyotsna Shourie at the ground-breaking ceremony for the launch of Outlook in 1995.

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Goa,1556 Shared Content at archive.org https://archive.org/details/goa1556

[Bharati Shah]

Dear FN,

 

An old memory is triggered by your post. Thought of sharing it with Goa Book Club. I recall, while working for The Indian Express's Hindi daily Jansatta in Mumbai, I had the opportunity to attend the anniversary party of The Indian Post, with its dynamic editor Vinod Mehta, pouring the champagne for all of us, yes even in my glass. That was the first and last time I tasted champagne in my life. I could see Mr Mehta was a warm, welcoming person who loved to smile a lot and liked to hello everyone, even a fresher like me. I had joined the tribe at the end of 1986... 

I remember it must be in 1988-89. At that time the owners of the daily, The Indian Post were J K group. The Chairman Vijaypat Singhania himself had flown a microlight aircraft from UK to India in 1988 and later wrote a book, 'An Angel in the Cockpit' on this journey. The Indian Post office was at Ballard Estate, in their own building, J K House, where I used to visit often in those days to meet a friend who worked as EDP manager there...

RIP dear editor Vinod Mehta.

 

Regards,

Bharati Pawaskar

 

On 10 March 2015 at 08:50, Frederick FN Noronha फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या *فريدريك نورونيا <frederic...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Luis Vas]

Frederick is a little confused about my connection with Vinod Mehta. What happened was this: When Vinod Mehta returned from England he came to Bombay and started working for Jaisons advertising. In his spare time he wrote a book titled Bombay A Private View which he peddled to all publishers in the city, including Jaico where I worked, but could find no takers. Finally he published it himself and Thackers distributed it. Soon after when the actress Meena Kumari died, since Vinod's book had a section on the Bombay cinema, I rang him and asked whether he would be willing to write a biography of Meena Kumari for Jaico. He agreed immediately, wrote it, we published it and it did very well. Then he suggested writing a biography of Sanjay Gandhi while he was still alive. We agreed and he wrote it but could not get either Sanjay or wife Maneka to talk to him. So the book was not a success. But Vinod's connection with Jaico enabled him to persuade Jaico to launch the Sunday Observer which he edited. He went on to edited several other papers and finally landed in Delhi and started Outlook. That'a when I lost touch with him. When Lucknow Boy was published I wrote to him to thank him for mentioning me in his book. He immediately replied to say that both Meena Kumari and The Sanjay Story had been reprinted by Harper Collins. I wrote back to say that Meena KUmari was doing well according to Mumbai booksellers but not the Sanjay Story. I didn't hear from after that.

Luis.

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