Nobody ought to ever have to jot down an obituary of an expensive, irreplaceable good friend.
Anant Rangaswami handed into the infinite, early this morning. Six weeks of mortal agony, introduced on by a dreadful confluence of sicknesses, which he suffered along with his common dignity and braveness, got here to an inevitable finish.
How do I compress 17 years of friendship, dialog, argument, debate and simply idly taking pictures the breeze, into just a few hundred phrases? Should an obit in a enterprise publication be all about how Anant touched and left his imprint on so many various sides of the communications business? Or in regards to the journalistic careers which budded and flowered beneath his watchful teaching and mentorship? Or in regards to the innumerable enterprise connections which he catalysed, the numerous alternatives he created for thus many, with out ever anticipating something in return, even easy acknowledgement?
Anant was already a media journalist, of flawless penmanship, nice authority and common regard, after I first met him, about 17 years in the past. I used to be new to the business and eager to grasp the way it labored. Anant was eager to grasp how a rank outsider to the communications enterprise would play a job within the behemoth which STAR already was. The first assembly was sufficient to determine a number of issues. Anant noticed proper previous superficiality and pretence. He knew everybody within the business, not simply the mighty potentates who sat in nook workplaces, but additionally the grunts who saved the juggernaut trundling. His information, significantly of the historical past and evolution of main systemic mechanisms, was encyclopedic, and he would share freely of it.
With the passage of time, and so many conversations, Anant was to disclose himself as a coruscating, many-splendored, gem. Whose effulgence illuminated each life and thoughts it touched.
Through the early years of the final decade, Anant’s evenings, when he was right here in Mumbai, have been typically spent at Toto’s Garage, a preferred pub at Pali Naka. He would handle to maintain his desk, regardless of how busy the home was on a given night. And what a desk it could be, the place one of the best minds within the enterprise would collect for good, typically boisterous, conversations, the place new connections can be made and outdated ones rekindled.
Anant beloved books. His residence had little piles of them, in each course you regarded. And his books have been meant to be shared with each different ebook lover who chanced upon them. For my spouse and me, these possibilities arose very often, within the 2012-2016 interval. We can be on our morning walks alongside Hill Road, keep in mind that he stayed up on Mount Mary, give him a name, and minutes later, troop in to a cup of freshly brewed tea. All this earlier than 7.30 a.m. and he would already be all spruced up and able to tackle the day. On such a morning, I noticed James Thurber’s “The Wonderful O”, not only one however an entire stack of copies. Curious, I believed. What would he be doing with so many? “You are here just in time to pick up your copy”, he mentioned, handing it over. If you haven’t learn the ebook but, choose it up and browse “The Wonderful O”. That shall be a nice tribute to Anant.
Anant collaborated with Piyush Pande on writing “Pandeymonium”, a brisk, pleasant learn on the thrill and perils of a life in promoting. Anant’s incorrigible wit might nicely have been the wellspring whence this terrific title emerged. Then there was ‘Elephant In The Room’, his personal self-published work, in regards to the existential quagmire wherein the Communications business discovered itself. If solely individuals in positions of authority paid heed to his perspicacity and knowledge.
Anant’s stoic acceptance of his aches and pains; and he needed to cope with them by means of a big a part of the final decade; by no means got here in the way in which of his impassioned zeal for his chosen business. His journalistic platforms: from Campaign to Kyoorius through Network-18, created a secure area for probably the most candid conversations in regards to the problems with the day. His tales didn’t merely serve to report; they moved the discourse ahead; helped untangle them and construct consensus when others had been unable to.
Above every little thing else, a person’s value have to be measured within the lives he touched and formed. Since this morning, I’ve spoken to a dozen individuals, lots of them younger journalists whom he groomed and coached for the dazzling profession trajectories they’re marking out. He sought nothing in return. For a person with no proof of overt religiosity, Anant was a real karmayogi. His legacy is large, and its impacts will proceed to twinkle by means of the works of those skilled inheritors.
In the final a number of years, Anant was deeply perturbed by the hatred and divisiveness spreading by means of India’s physique politic. His Twitter timeline, luminous along with his rapier sharp wit and singular perception, additionally provided a sobering actuality examine on the place we have been as a nation-state, and the place we is likely to be headed.
As I mentioned to somebody earlier in the present day, a extremely good tribute, to the good friend and information we misplaced, can be to embrace what grew to become his remaining Twitter deal with. “Don’t Let Hate Win”.
Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook
Source: www.financialexpress.com”