Professor P.K. Ravindranath: A multi-faceted personality

Kerala in Mumbai Professor P.K. Ravindranath Special Issue

I have known Professor P.K. Ravindranath for several years, from 1973, if not before. I saw him at a public meeting and was very hesitant to approach him and be introduced because of his social position and importance. After several such incidents when I decided to start a Malayalam monthly magazine, I telephoned him and introduced myself. Thereafter, our relationship grew thick and he became my Raviyettan. During our first conversation, he would sometimes continue to talk without giving me a chance. In the beginning, I used to be much tense. To my surprise, Professor P.K. Ravindranath said he had heard about me. Our life long relationship started from that moment. We had an amazing mental rapport, trust, mutual respect, and love. I am proud to say I am his disciple even though I have little of his qualities. 

Professor P.K. Ravindranath was a colleague of M V Kamath, T J S George, K Shivram, M.K.B. Nair, Bal Thackeray, S. Viswam, M P Iyer, R. Venkatachari, S.B. Kolpe, Dr. R Satyanarayana, R.K. Laxman, Behram Contractor aka Busybee, Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson Arun Manilal Gandhi and others and mentor of scores of journalists and media men like M.J. Akbar, Minhaj and Suezelle.

Professor P.K. Ravindranath was a multi-faceted personality. He worked as a correspondent, sub editor, film editor, freelance writer, bureau chief, editor, columnist, translator, coordinator, political commentator and analyst. He had a sound knowledge of socio-economic-political matters. He was also a journalists’ union leader, actor, speaker, teacher and many more. He was Press Advisor to former Maharashtra Chief Minister Shard Pawar, Director of Nehru Centre, editor, consulting editor and teacher of journalism. He has also scripted English sub-titles for Malayalam movies. He has done a small but very important role in the Malayalam film “The Train” directed by national award winning director Jayaraj in 2012. Ravindranath died on Monday, 18^th February, 2013 at his residence in Kala Nagar, Bandra East, 44, Patrakar Colony, Mumbai, at 5:00 pm.  He was 86 and is survived by his wife Tara and three children Jayesh, Anuja and Naresh.

Prof. Ravindranath fell off his bed the previous night and thereafter he was unconscious. He was suffering from throat cancer since last few months and was fed liquid food through tube. Therefore, medical experts advised not to shift him to hospital immediately and kept under observation. The end came the following day suddenly in the evening. I was at his bedside when he breathed his last. . It was not a pre-planned visit to his house. After lunch, all of a sudden I decided to go there as if some unknown power guided me there.  I reached there at 4.30 pm and he died at 5.00 pm. Besides his family members, I was the only person from outside present at that time. I was fortunate to be there and later, together with P.V. Vijay Kumar, Managing Editor of Kerala in Mumbai informed others about his death.

Relatives, former colleagues, friends, disciples, well-wishers, students, writers, journalists, editors, publishers, bureaucrats and people from all walks of life paid tributes to Prof. P.K. Ravindranath on Monday evening and the following day between 12.00 pm and 2.00 pm.  There was no cremation and traditional last rites function. As per his will, his eyes were donated to the Eye Bank, skin to Skin Bank and body to J.J. Medical College, Mumbai.

Professor P.K. Ravindranath

In his condolence message Governor of Maharashtra K. Sankaranarayanan said, “He was one of the finest and well-read persons I met after coming to Maharashtra.  His knowledge of affairs of the state and of the nation was amazing.  A meeting with him was always an enriching experience.  Ravindranathji distinctly seemed to me like a modern-day sage.  At the personal level, he was a gem of a person, full of energy and zest for life.”

Let me quote a letter published in M.J. Akbar’s websitewww.mjakbar.org/mjletters.htm

“With regard to your fortnightly political magazine - Covert, I would like to provide some feedback even before it has been launched! Since the feedback comes from a person who incidentally, is not only my mentor but also your mentor in your initial years at TOI, I felt that I should be passing on this information to you. Over, the weekend, I, along with one of my friends, had gone to meet Prof. P K Ravindranath. Our conversation revolved around many issues including the current rut. Then, during the course of our discussion, I asked Ravi Sir regarding his opinion about how effective Covert would be. Ravi Sir's response was swift and clear. "Well, knowing Akbar, I would say, Covert would be a great success. He has a knack for making a success of anything that he takes up -- Sunday (the magazine), Telegraph, and the Asian Age are shining examples. Although he has a huge challenge in making it quite different from all the existing news magazines, I am confident that he will make it a resounding success."Come May, and I feel Covert will not let down Prof. P.K. Ravindranath’s expectations. Wishing you all the best! – Minhaj”

Again, I am quoting few lines written by a student Suezelle in her blog the following day of his death:

“I should have visited him. I should have done it as soon as I was notified that he was unwell. I should have at least called. I cannot believe I did not attempt to get in touch with one of my most favourite college professors – Sir P.K. Ravindranath. I am guessing he was 86-years-old. However, that man had a charm that could convince me into anything that was of benefit to me. PKR sir (that is what we all called him) taught me Indian Regional Journalism in my Semester V. The first day I saw him, I thought it was a terrible idea to let such an old man teach a young batch like ours, but I was wrong. My narrow thinking misled me. He was the best. I never missed a single lecture. He taught us journalism, but he also made me love history and politics. Today, every time I say I love history and politics, it is because of PKR. He narrated every story patiently. At times, I would sit with him after the lecture and get more details. He explained the Emergency in 1975 beautifully. Moreover, believe me, prior to this, I never scored good marks in history. I was a part of the lucky batch that got a veteran journalist like PKR as a professor during Semester VI as well. He taught us Media Management.

Apart from being an amazing journalism teacher, he also encouraged me to read. Since then, I have not stopped reading. Reading was something I did not care much earlier. But, here I am, not just reading, but writing as well.

 Suezelle with Prof. P.K. Ravindranath and Mrs. Tara Ravindranath together with her journalism friends

I remember stepping into his house one afternoon when I was worried about choosing a job. I was straight out of college and this was my first job. No doubt, I wanted to get into serious journalism, but no newspaper wanted to hire a graduate. You had to have completed a post graduation in Journalism. However, I got through a newspaper in Goa. I also got through an interview at a Lifestyle website in Mumbai. There, I had to choose – Newspaper, but in Goa and Lifestyle in Mumbai. I wanted Newspaper in Mumbai! Nothing was going right. Hence, I visited PKR that afternoon. He said, “Girl, very soon, everyone will start using a chip to read news. Everything is going to be digital. And there are enough people to take care of a newspaper, as of now. I suggest you take up the job with the website. Start writing there and you can always move to a newspaper later.”

I did not question any of those words. I took up the job at InOnIt.in as a content writer. Worked with the company for one year eight months. But before I took up a new job as a content writer at MSL India, I also started freelancing with The Goan on Saturday, a weekly that is published in Goa. And I wanted to tell PKR about this. I really wanted to give him this good news. How terrible I feel not to share this amazing information about me with him.

For me, PKR was a very important figure. He helped me change the way I think. I liked him as a person and loved him way too much as a professor. If every college gets professors like PKR, you will love sitting in college. Believe me, you will give a second thought before bunking.

Rest in Peace dear Sir PKR. I’m sorry, I didn’t come to see you before you passed away.”

https://thetalkingdesk.wordpress.com/2013/02/19/he-made-me-love-history-politics-journalism/#comment-26

Professor P.K. Ravindranath is a familiar name both in English and regional press in India. Since last six decades, he was silently continuing his work with passion and dedication. This veteran of Indian media has several accolades to his credit. Recently Mulund Kerala Samajam conferred on him its first KM Mathews Memorial Endowment Award 2012 for his invaluable service to society in the field of journalism and fearless reporting carrying a purse of Rs. 25,000 in cash, a shawl and a memento.

The last public function he attended was Kerala in Mumbai’s third annual day and Ragalaya’s ninth annual day celebrations.  When he arrived at the auditorium, the organizers suddenly announced the first Shailaja Nair Foundation-Kerala in Mumbai lifetime achievement award to Professor P.K. Ravindranath surprising him and everyone, because there was no formal announcement or advertisement in the press or social media about the award, carrying a purse of Rs. 1,00,000 in cash, a shawl and citation. He considered it the best and very important honour in his life.  He was much impressed the wordings carefully and aesthetically written by Kerala in Mumbai’s Executive Editor K.V. Satyanath in the citation and expressed his joy over it to his close people. The entire audience gave him a standing ovation at the Kalidasa Natya Mandir in Mulund, as a gesture to show their respect to the multi-faceted person.  Though he was very weak and tired, his will power and dedication brought him to the programme venue. Just imagine a person at his advanced stage of throat cancer carrying a tube in his mouth attending to a programme and sitting through the entire duration of three and half hours.

Professor P.K. Ravindranath was the epitome of simplicity, dignity, experience, knowledge, authenticity and truth. It is difficult to find any other person in Indian media of his stature with wide experience of life. His persona is unique and he is really a role model of ethics and purity.

His journalistic career started in The Free Press Journalas a sub-editor and continued through The Times of India, the National Herald, the Mathrubhumi and other newspapers and periodicals in various positions.

Circumstances made him a leader, organizer and activist.  During his college days in Samuthiri College at Calicut (now Kozhikode), he took active part in students union activities and become the secretary of students union. Noted writer late N.P. Muhammad was the president of the students’ union. Later, during his short stint in Kuwait Oil Company he organized employees against the haughty attitude of the British and American bosses of the KOC.  They called a strike, and the entire operations of the mighty company came to a standstill for five days. These leadership and organization capacity helped him to hold the posts of Chairman of the Bombay Union of Journalists and the Treasurer of the Indian Federation of Working Journalists.

From 1978 to 1986, Ravindranath ran a very popular column in Mathrubhumi-“Maharashtra Kathu” (Maharashtra newsletter, which caught the attention of the entire political leadership of Kerala.

In 1984 he had written “Chandrashekhar: A Political Biography”. He also wrote “Sardar Patel in a New Perspective”. “A Slice of Life” and a coffee table book “Iyer Weddings”. “Sharad Pawar – The Making of Modern Maratha” is a biography of former Maharashtra Chief Minister and current agricultural minister in central ministry. Since 2000 when the Mumbai University introduced the BMM (Bachelor of Mass Media course), he was invited to conduct classes in various colleges. In the last decade has turned out over 400 journalists, who now adorn good positions in the print and electronic media. He has also published many books on journalism, which include “Indian Regional Journalism”, “Contemporary Issues”, “Press Laws and Ethics of Journalism”, “The Art of Editing”, “Broadcast Journalism”, “News Media Management”.  Further he published books like “A Citizen’s Manual on How to Survive Riots”, “National Police Commission – Its Relevance Today”, Sustainable Development and Future Papers”,  “Laws and Practices Related to Banking (With A.D. Salvi and K.D. Zakharias)”, and Master of News Room K. Shivaram – The Man and the Journalist”.

Prof. P.K. Ravindranath translated three novels from Malayalam into English. He has translated for Kendra Sahitya Akademi Keshavadev’s famous novel ‘Ayalkar’ as The Neighbours. He also translated Jnanpith Award winner M.T. Vasudevan Nair’s ‘Randaamoozham’ as The Second Turn, which was published by Macmillan. Another novel translated is ‘Arabi Ponnu’ as Arab Gold, written jointly by N.P. Muhammed and M.T. VasudevanNair published by Rupa.

Since the start of Kerala in Mumbai in 2010, Prof. P.K. Ravindranath was its consulting editor. The Publisher and Managing Editor of Kerala in Mumbai. P.V. Vijay Kumar will shortly publish Prof. P.K. Ravindranath’s latest book “In the Labyrinths of Indian Journalism”.

Just as his trademark white shirt-white pants attire symbolised the purity of his outer personality, his calm and quiet face with a serene smile wrapped with ‘I know it’ mark presents his cool temperament. Like the signature of purity he carries with his clothing, his face reveals his inner beauty.

This unique persona will attain eternal glory in the annals of Indian literature, journalism, translation, editorship and social work and will be remembered for generations.

Ave atque vale Raviyettan.