Behind the News: Voices from Goa's Press

rent Weekly, the Free Press Journal group and the Indian Express. He was Staff Reporter with the West Coast Times and as a freelan

er crucial attribute, that of being the only English-language daily, from Goa Monitor in the late 1960s, NT had just staved off another. West

to its snug-

RD Tata and M.R. Pai, I have been a votary of free enterprise and competition - and allergic to monopolies. A mo

Times) did not suffice. What mattered was the capacity to financially sustain a daily newspaper (by absorbing annual losses even while continuing to maintain quality) until the product turned round, which could take some years. That kind of money in Goa only mineowners had -

I was in touch with were willing to

ess in Mumbai and Goa, told me that A.C. Fernandes, Patrao of the Panjim stationers Casa J.D. Fernandes, was to

s dwindling local readership, but evidently for the intrinsic value of its press and its centrally-located premises. It was said he took full advantage of the daily's lable, in those days of the Permit Raj,

o may have lacked by way of adequate resources was made up in having his priorities right. His love Goa and her way of life, his con

mure wife and sons, John, Raul and Oswald, with the mutual friend and I sat across a carefully laid table. I spoke about WCT and why it failed, my ideas for a successful daily and my business plan for such a

ng, they expected salaries the kind Patrao never figured existed! Ervelle Menezes was the best bet. When I covered Goa for the Indian Express a couple of years before, Ervelle wa

me too: I had been, by now, ordained to be the to-be newspaper's Chief Reporter, on insistence of A.C. Fernandes and his son Raul. My own plan had been

course, is around and it would be for him to say why he declined. What I surmised at that time, though, was that Ervelle must have been put off by local opinion about A.C. Fern

th a daily newspaper. The applicant's only exposure to a daily was a brief stint at the Financial Express - not a mainstream newspaper. His c.v. spoke of experience at Mirror. But then, magazine journalism is not the same as what goes into

been to Goa's En

ajan Narayan's app

and

ndovi (I wonder if he ever stayed there again, used as in later years he was to offered or obtained five-star hospitality across Goa's coast!) Patrao, Raul and I met him. The parleys went so long in the afternoon that there was no

itor of the IE's local edition, to fend off competition from the formidable Times of India, one could count on Bikram to come up with extremely off-beat ideas: he painted the town red with the slogan, Keen ahead of the times, read the Express! To compete, we

andes and Raul alone. He was also glad I would be the newspaper's Chief Staff Reporter. He pleaded that I stay back in Panjim that day, so we could discuss in greater detail. Th

plans and strategy,

slap across the face. A furious A.C. Fernandes hollered, "Mama and I were so worried about you." (It seems those days the Fernandes household was being terrorized by another Fernandes household in the Santa Cruz neighbourhoo

. But I believe my opinion carried the weight of near finali

Rajan privately kept asking me whether these guys could really run a newspaper. I kept assuring him they would. We agreed that together we would keep prodding them if they wavered. On the way back to

and he didn't want to put people in trouble if the paper was, after all, not going to take off. During the period to the run up, I wrote and kept Rajan

rned with risking his Mumbai team's future. I had mentioned to Rajan earlier in Goa how the entire well-knit editorial team at WCT had quit en bloc in the face of a stubborn management vis-a-vis the workers' strike. T

row away that letter, as

t the wooden-floored 1st storey Herald office opposite Panjim's Municipal Garden, work was on at a feverish pace. Rajan and I co

ith school chum Nelson Fernandes to cover sports and Lui Godinho on the camera. I roped in some old field hands

nk. It was decided we give readers a preview. One Sunday (or was it another public holiday?), a few weeks ahead of the formal launch on October 10, 1983, a special edition was given out gra

f WCT's short life.) Expensive computers had been brought in but A.C. Fernandes cribbed on appointing experienced hands as compositors

however trivial, had to get Patrao's direct approval. If Rajan wanted a chair cushion, he'd have to convince the old man w

ted me for a cup of tea at a nearby cafe at Jesuit House, Jasmal or Jesema. Once seated, Raul developed an unusual countenance and began vaguely referring to the salary that had been offered to me (Rs.4,000 per mensem.) I imagined there must have been a fa

. "It's not about the amount of

fairly well by now, I instinctively felt his hand in this. Didn't even feel like meeting the others at the office or the Patrao at the shop downstairs. Over the previous se

k the next

r that over the last 20 years, tottered, steadied and thrived - even if in

der now had a choice, and the inherent benefits of competition. Happily for Goa, the combination at the right time of the Proprietors and of Rajan Narayan and some excellent members in the editorial team, clicke

ation and endeared himself to the average English-language newspaper reader, especially of the minority community. Rajan, a craf

also arrived in good time, in the form

onkani, Goa and Cristaos liberally splashed all over the place, for months without end. With a 'sympathy and empathy' never before seen, the Mai Bhas formula worked magic for Rajan - as it did,

in the initial stages, a lot of pain and personal sacrifice - but let's also not forget that Rajan was, those days, without the responsibilities of a family and

by many a gifted journalist, who worked with Rajan. At least one such is alas no more in our midst - Norman Dantas, son of a former

my 198

to him on the editorial team standing as one - and quitting as one if need arose - and convinced the Patrao that here was a snake already scheming to kill the newspaper before it was even born! How the intrinsic illogic of this premise - since the Fernandeses were well aware of

rst case. Many

lf-appointed keeper of Goa's conscience and probity in her public life. The powerful Stray Thoughts (which, incidentally, started off with Bolshoi the dog, borrowed from the celebrated ToI columnist and later owner/editor of Mumbai's Afternoon Despatch & Courier, Behram Contractor a.k.a. Busybee) came in handy here. I know th

as no option but to resign. Having known Rajan Narayan the way I did 20 years ago, I have my doubts whether he will leave on his own. Of course, he has already announced plans to publish a weekly in Goa - owned by the readers!! H

y, he will be infinitely better placed than the Patrao, A.