A Real-Life Anchor

Did the readers of Business Standard know S P Singh, the anchor of Aaj Tak ? No matter. This writer is convinced that their lives would be enriched with this acquaintance, albeit posthumously. SP (nobody knew him as anything else) died on June 27. He was 49.

India, it is said, lives in several centuries. SP was the only journalist who knew all the characters, all the issues in the several worlds that coalesce into the Indian kaleidoscope. Politics, fine arts, Hindi films, sports, religion, environment, grassroot NGOs, labour activism, astrology, business, economy his enquiring mind took it all in. And retained it, for SP had a memory that would shame an elephant.

 

This was in 1983. I was with The Telegraph and he was editor of Ravivar. Rajya Sabha elections were due and I suddenly needed to know how many Congress MPs were retiring. I turned to SP. In five minutes flat he had all the details how many MPs, when they were elected (full term or filling a vacancy), their political history, their caste, et al. He did not have it all by heart: he went through his mental archives slowly but sure-footedly to roll out the details. After that, I had no doubt who was the countrys most knowledgeable journalist when it came to politics.

Or even sports. He knew of that striker from Sikkim who shone in some little-known tournament before the world heard of Baichung Bhutiya. Or films. He would be the first to hear about that dance-crazy boy from Virar before everybody knew him as Govinda.

In short, he knew this country better than anybody else. But unlike other true sons of the soil, he was not a frog in the well. He was as knowledgeable about the intricacies of Labour\Tory politics as about the latest elections in JNU. He would know as much about Mexicos economic misfortunes as about Bihars fodder scam.

His knowledge came from reading, of course. He was a glutton for reading, and he was happiest with being by himself, or with the written word for company. Unusual for somebody with such a public profile and doing a job in such public glare, he was a very private man. But he was a man of such genuine humility that he would touch a chord with anybody who he came in touch with.

It was no surprise at all that of the many who came and wept near his body (and nobody howled louder than Sitaram Kesri), one of the most broken groups was a foursome of office help who just sat there by his head and cried and cried. Or the young spirits of Aaj Tak who clutched his toes and broke down because where will they get as knowledgeable, as demanding and yet as gentle and fair a teacher as SP?

There have been greater intellects in journalism than him who have died in the recent past: Girilal Jain and Rajendra Mathur come readily to mind. Both men were held in awe. SP was too, but such was his common touch that for everybody, he was only SP. He was not just respected, he was deeply loved by many, many more people than any other contemporary journalist. At his funeral, somebody from Living Media remarked that his last employer, Mr Aroon Purie, was shaken because he really liked SP. Is there anybody who did not like SP?