TJS, THAT LEGEND DOWN THE CORRIDOR

THERE are journalists, and then there are journalists who get that rare prefix, 'legendary'.

- SANTWANA BHATTACHARYA EDITOR

TJS George belonged to this second order, an endangered tribe these days. Its list of card-holding members got rarer still when the man passed away today, at age 97.

Behind him trails a career in letters that has spanned about as long as the life of the Indian republic, and as varied. From his erudition in Carnatic music that birthed a book on MS Subbulakshmi, and others on VK Krishna Menon as well as Nargis, it also contained landmarks in good old-fashioned print journalism, such as being the founding editor of Asiaweek in Hong Kong back in the 1970s—an act of pan-Asia ecumenism that would have resonated well today.