BANGALORE: A book set for release on Sunday chronicles the professional life of Ethirajan Raghavan, known to the world as E Raghavan.
Beginning his career as a stringer for the Express in Mysore, he served in many capacities before rising to the position of editor at a business daily. He was 61, and editor of a Kannada daily, when he died at 2012.
The book, titled Sampadakara Sampadaka (Editor of Editors) contains 20 articles on Raghavan, written by his colleagues in Kannada journalism.
“Raghavan was knowledgeable about a wide range of subjects,” said K Kariswamy, who has edited the book with his colleague and friend of many years, B S Jayaprakasha Narayana. “He could talk on anything from the economic downturn to the Mahabharata to Odissi dance.”
An English-language journalist most of his life, Raghavan began writing in Kannada after he took over as editor of a daily in the language.
“He used to say his limited vocabulary in Kannada was both a strength and a weakness,” recalled Kariswamy, who regards his year and a half with Raghavan as a period of intense work and invaluable learning. “He wanted his writing to be simple, like the conversation of common people.”
For Kariswamy and Jayaprakasha Narayana, Raghavan was someone they could criticise and question without inhibition. “He would react without anger, and explain the rationale for his decisions,” said Kariswamy.
(Launch of Sampadakara Sampadaka, Rs 130, Maitri Prakashana, at Kannada
Sahitya Parishat, Chamarajpet, 10.30 am on Sunday).