BANGALORE: What the Dickens? The lips which held the pipe for decades will do so no more. The fingers which wielded the cricketing, at time sporting, pen with such felicity will not do so any more. For the celebrated cricket writer, commentator and author, Rajan Bala, 63, himself is no more.
The renowned cricket writer and sports editor died after a brief illness at a city nursing home on Oct. 9. His death has brought the glorious days of cricket reporting, mainly Tests, and writing to an end.
It all began in 1969 as Rajan with his first job as a sports reporter in The Statesman in good old Calcutta. ``The editor asked me why I wanted a job in his newspaper. I told him, I want to write. And he gave me the job,'' Rajan always said with pride. Ever since, he did little else but write, write and write — reports, articles, books, columns et al.
A professional to the core, there is the story of Rajan walking out of an English daily with six others at one go. As he joined a rival publication, he went about boasting that the best of sports journalism talent had moved. His pride hurt, another reporter who had not initially joined, also resigned and moved over to the Rajan camp. Such was the magic he wove around his colleagues.
After all the morning talk and the afternoon siesta, Rajan would walk into the office, meet other colleagues and then sit at the desk. Soon he would open his tobacco pouch and light his pipe. And it was time for him to thrash out an exclusive story or an opinion piece. ``Give me two sheets,'' he would ask and the story would be banged on the good old Godrej typewriter within no time. Such was his ability to bisect and dissect many matters, especially cricket.
After the Statesman stint, Rajan worked at The Hindustan Standard, Business Standard, The Hindu, Deccan Herald, Indian Express, Afternoon Courier-Despatch, Cricket Talk, Asian Age and was a columnist for the Bangalore Mirror. For several months, he also wrote a blog for Express Buzz, the web site of The New Indian Express. Rajan also wrote a regular column for Wisden and a couple of English newspapers.
A man who could talk and discuss many topics of interest, he was somewhat of a bibliophile. Over 3,000 books adorned his showcases at home. He also wrote several himself. `Kiwis and Kangaroos', `Glances at Perfection', `The Covers are Off' and biographies of B.S. Chandrasekhar and Sachin Tendulkar were among his books.
A man who never let down his colleagues felt he was let down by some. He nursed that grief for long but talked about it only with a select few.
There was never a dull moment with Rajan around. He would either narrate interesting stories or else goad and urge you to do something at work. They were clearly `Days Well Spent,’ the title of his forthcoming book. After all this, one can again say: What the Dickens? That was the title of his signed column in the Indian Express.