BAPTISM BY FIRE

Born when free speech was manacled, India Today hit the ground running. Its fearless, objective journalism revolutionised the media industry

- DILIP BOBB

My first day at a magazine no one had heard of, in fact did not even exist, was in response to a walk-in interview for a proposed publication.

I was a writer, born, but not yet bred. The interview was at the Connaught Place office of V. V. Purie, an entrepreneur, and a narrow corridor had been cordoned off for the advertised media enterprise. I was ushered into an office inhabited by Madhu Trehan, Mr Purie's daughter, and a family friend, Mohini Bhullar. There was no need for CVs, instead I was asked to choose one from a number of newspaper cuttings and rewrite it. I was given a typewriter (computers were still an alien species) and using the two-finger test, I did the best I could. It passed muster and I was hired on the spot. What I had signed up for was a newsmagazine meant for NRIs starved of news from home, hence the title, 'India Today'. It sounded like a government gazette but gave birth to a product that would go on to revolutionise the media industry and evolve into a news behemoth.

None of that was in evidence when the startup, well, started. I was the first paid employee, the rest consisted of a small group of family and friends, unqualified but young, adventurous and freethinking. There was Madhu's younger sister, Mandira, and her close friend, Shirley Joshua, and me. Sunil Sethi would sign up, bringing some journalistic experience to the small team. Madhu had graduated from the Columbia School of Journalism and was married to a US-based doctor, Naresh Trehan. Aroon Purie, the eldest son, had returned from the London School of Economics and was in charge of another related business, Thomson Press. He was also involved in the planning and economics of the new magazine venture as its publisher. The first issue was unashamedly a copy of Time magazine, in cover design and also in writing style. The difference was that INDIA TODAY was planned as a fortnightly.