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Part I

Rama: You are a champion of the freedom of expression. Do you think you enjoy it fully?
Ram: 'Fully' is a difficult word, because we have legal constraints and so on. But here in the Hindu, whatever aberration takes place is only your fault. It is not under compulsion. There is a famous saying by Humbert Wolfe "You cannot hope to bribe or twist, Thank God, the British journalist: But seeing what the man will do unbribed, there is no occasion to." If there are some newspapers or some journalists like that, it is not a problem of freedom of expression. In my case I don't see myself as fitting into that category at all. We take on people.

VIEWSPAPER
Sometimes, you know, it is a matter of judgment. So it may be right or wrong. It is a matter of balancing. But there is no problem here. We take a strong stand against communalism, against non-independent foreign policy, against neglecting the deprived, and against any narrow-minded approach including casteism. We take on very powerful organisations, whether it be the Unite States or your own Government. We try. But your judgment could be faulted.

I think the answer largely is you. If you stick to factual reporting, if you don't allow editorialising in the guise of news and keep analysis and comments separate, it is a good model for journalism even in the current age. Because, there are various approaches. There are people who say that newspapers cannot continue in the old way and that it has to be a viewspaper, to quote the Independent in the UK. There are some Indian newspapers and editors, who are also taking that path. In Television, all the time the junior-most reporter, he or she is asked to comment on matters that they know nothing about, because of sheer pressure. The anchor will ask,'What do think of this?' and somebody who knows nothing of the subject who is either immodest enough to hold fort or is forced to hold fort responds. I see it as worse in Television rather than in Newspapers. But Newspapers are also doing it. I thnk, sometimes from the top, inputs are made and load your copy. If the newspaper doesn't like the views of a political party or leader, then the reporter is allowed to make fun or to use various loaded phrases. I can show you on any given day many examples of this trend. I consciously try to counter this. If you do that, I think it is much better for the freedom of expression. If you have highly biased or slanted copy, you are provoking - provoking intolerant people a lot more.
Rama: I think you enjoyed a special relationship with R K Narayan. Can you share that with us?.

Ram: He was one of the most remarkable men I had the privilege and pleasure of knowing. You too knew him well. I met him for the first time in the late seventies. We at the Hindu used to have a very good feature, called outlook. We did it on Sundays in Mr. G .Kasturi's room., with two senior reporters. We would tape-record the whole discussion. In which four to six experts would participate. There will be a moderator. Mr R K Narayan came here to participate in an excellent discussion on 'Publishing in India'. That is when I really got to know him and after that I was really enchanted. People here - Mr. Kasturi, my father, and going back to Mr Kasturi Srinivasan, a great editor - they knew him very well. R K Narayan's association with the Hindu went back to the early nineteen-thirties.

Before we started Frontline, Mr Kasturi and me, we drove down to Mysore, called on Mr. Narayan and requested him to contribute, which he did. He did essays and also gave us the first right to publish what became novels. He was a charming host. He asked me to stay in his house. So, from 1984 or 85, I really got to know him extremely well, very closely. When his daughter was ailing, I used to take her to the Hospital. and report to him. We did a heroic job. But it was too late. After his daughter died of cancer in the early nineties, I used to visit him every night.
MY FRIEND R K NARAYAN
Whenever I was in Chennai, after I finish my work 9 30 or even 10 in the night, I would go there and stay on till 1.30 or 2 am. And this was the time when R K Narayan came alive. We would be recalling the past. Every night I would come home and note down all that he said. I wouldn't take notes in his presence., because that would be inhibitive. Once I took him a book by Saul Bellow, titled 'A Theft', a very short book. He would say, when a writer gets old, the books become shorter. And suddenly he would remember and say about the goldsmith sweeping in the dust at the end of the day to retrieve little particles of gold. And he would recall the old days when his grand-mother would engage him or hire him to go and watch the work of the goldsmith. Goldsmiths were not trusted in those days at least. He would have to watch like a hawk for which she paid him several annas. At the end of the day, he would sweep in the dust and look for small particles. What a beautiful imagery? You can't get this for a million dollars.
Soon after his daughter died, his family called me and asked me I could go and be with him. It was early hours of the morning. I was there in his house. He was very calm. We knew that when his wife died in 1939, he went through a period of trauma. But, now he was very calm. The very first thing he told me was: 'we are all in the queue. But she has jumped the queue'. You know, the father who lost his daughter a couple of hours ago, told me. 'you know chemotherapy is like setting fire to the hut to roast the pig.'. This was an allusion to an essay by Charles Lamb, which I had read in College. The essay is called, 'A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig'. It starts with a Chinese fable. Just as we had cows as wealth, for them pigs were wealth. They had kept them in a hut. The hut caught fire and the pig-wealth was destroyed. The father came and started beating the son who was supposed to take care of the pigs. The son touched the pig, burnt his finger and he licked it. It was delicious. And more and more accidents began to take place. This is the story. But, for a vegetarian father to recall this at a moment of calamity was something remarkable.
I saw a lot of Narayan's papers, his letters to Graham Greene. Some of them we discovered. You know, people didn't know they existed. Graham Greene died and his archive was put on the market. It went to Boston College and so I took it there. Narayan gave us lot of papers. After the death of his wife, he had kept private Journal. Even his family hadn't seen them for decades. He was in Chennai and he wanted that. So, his grandson and I made n expedition to his house in Mysore. It was there exactly at the place where he said it was and we brought it for him.
Apart from R K Narayan, the other person who made a very big impact in my life was M S Subbulakshmi. I am not very knowledgeable in Carnatic music. But I have known her for a very long time. She was a remarkable person. I used to call on her when Sadasivam was alive and even after that and interact with her.
At the political level, I had the great privilege of knowing A K Gopalan, E M S Namboothiripad, Sundarayya, who made a big impact on me and several others. I didn't want to drop names. But these are people who had tremendous character, vision and were doers also. Despite setbacks they showed in their lives remarkable accomplishments. They were remarkable individuals. They were visionaries. Each had individual qualities. Jyothi Basu is one such. I didn't have the opportunity of knowing Nehru. I was too young for that. I know several leaders in the political field. But I know these leaders of the CPI(M), in particular. During the emergency and after.
And also, you valued writers. In fact, Natwar Singh once brought Mulk Raj Anand to R K Narayan. I have a rare photograph of the three. Because of journalism and even otherwise, you have opportunity of meeting people of outstanding character, unusual people and so on. I think you and I had and have the opportunity of meeting real range of people. Very few other professions will give you this opportunity - including some very bad guys. A British Editor had a book called 'Supping with the Devil'. As journalists, you can't be squeamish about meeting anyone. You can't bring in your personal likes and dislikes.
Rama: Vidya Ram topped the prestigious Columbia School of Journalism in 2007. You must be a proud father, no doubt. Can you kindly tell us something about your father, the one and only G Narasimhan?
Ram: He died in 77, somewhat prematurely. In those days, cardiac care was not good enough. Certainly he was a big presence in our lives right through., throughout and so was the Hindu. He used to come here largely, to go to Chepauk since he liked Cricket. My father, I think had a very balanced view of education and various interests. He was very strict, somewhat reclusive in the office. He was interested in billiards, Golf and Horse-racing. He owned the famous race horse called Red Cockade.
In the office he was a manager. Now everybody is a manager. In those days, he was called the GM or manager, though he was the Managing Director. They were completely committed to their work, but just found time to do other things in the evenings. He encouraged studies and Cricket. Of course your mother also makes a huge difference. My mother is eighty five. In fact today is her birthday.
Rama: Please convey my Namaskarams to her,.
Ram: Oh yes. I will. Everybody referred to my father as a gentleman. He wouldn't raise his voice. We had a wonderful experience, all of us, the three brothers and our elder sister Usha. He was a modern-minded man. He was in the joint family. So they had to function within the collective system. But they had also their individual traits. Main thing is he was not narrow minded. In days when people were much more conservative. I remember one incident. I have not told anyone. But I can tell you. I was in the Presidency College. Till then it was coed and there was a friend of mine, a woman who was studying in the college and we were chatting now and then. In those days even talking to a girl would be misconstrued. I don't think I was very forward or exposed to all these. But, when my father came to hear about it, he asked me very confidentially without any strong disapproval or without revealing his views, what my intentions were. I said, there was absolutely nothing. I think for those days, that kind of a non fussy, even courteous d ealings with their son, who many people think they owned - they owned your life - I remember those days. He passed away too soon. He had a lot more to do.
Incidentally, he had a huge collection of recorded tapes of giants of Carnatic music. He donated all that to the Music Academy.
Rama: Thank You, Mr. Ram, for your time.
Ram: You are welcome.

Part I

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