SP’s sensitivity made him a household name

The last line of the programme was added by SP himself and ironically, in retrospect, also turned out to be his farewell to his viewers. “Lekin zindagi apni raftaar se chalti rehti hai.”(Life goes on.)

His dedication and minute attention to every aspect of the Uphaar news was characteristic of a journalist who was a very sensitive and extremely conscientious professional. But the emotional trauma and the demands of his stress-filled job may have contributed to the massive brain haemorrhage he suffered two days later. SP was a diabetic whose health was at times frail.

At 49, SP had become a household name because of the popularity of Aaj Tak, which he both anchored and produced. The programme which was telecast on DD Metro attracted a far wider audience than any other news programmes in Hindi and English on a TV channel in the main metros.

Aaj Tak was totally SP’s creation. He carefully vetted the script to ensure that the Hindi was easily understood in all parts of the country. But he never compromised on the purity of the language. He winced at attempts by some TV channels to bastardise Hindi by the indiscriminate mixing of English words.

As executive producer, SP encouraged his team of young reporters to come up with new ideas and investigations. But much of the show’s enormous popularity lay in SP’s own warm personality and image of credibility. SP’s full time involvement in television was actually only in the last two years of his life. Before that he had made a mark in the Hindi print media.

At the age of 29, SP became Editor of the Hindi magazine, Ravivar, and pioneered a new genre of Hindi journalism, initiating many hard-hitting stories on political corruption and social injustice.

SP grew up in a lower middle class family settled in Calcutta and used to recall proudly that he attended a municipal school. But he was not in any way handicapped by the relative poverty of his childhood. He started out as a lecturer in a Calcutta college and got a The Times of India traineeship scheme so that he could get a free trip to Bombay. SP believed strongly in the causes of social justice and secularism, and was not scared to stick his neck out for his principles even when he differed with the popular sentiment of his readers.

He was proud to be dubbed a Mandalite at a time when most of his peers in in the Hindi Press were totally opposed to caste reservations. SP was well read and knowledgeable about art, literature and the sciences. He once took a mere fortnight off from work to write the award-winning script and story for the film, Paar. He wrote the scripts for Mrinal Sen’s films Tasveer and Genesis.