Brings Back Memories

T T Ram Mohan’s apt tribute to his latefather T T Vijayaraghavan (“Other Days, Other Times,” EPW, 25 March 2017) evokes fond memories of the fledgling economic journalism of the 1970s and 1980s. T T Vijayaraghavan was known affectionately as TTV in the Economic Times (ET), the leading economic daily of the day. I have particularly fond memories of this unique journalist who stood apart for his gentle demeanour and a sense of high professionalism from the loud-mouthed lot.

I joined the ET in 1971 during D K Rangnekar’s editorship. Rangnekar had a unique aura as a top-flight and scholarly journalist who is credited with laying a sound foundation for economic journalism and coverage of the corporate world. Nehruvian ideology and an obsession with a socialistic pattern of society (the resolution of the Avadi session of the ruling Congress party) underlay the intellectual dialogue. Anti-Americanism, still fresh in the aftermath of America’s devastating defeat in Vietnam and their subsequent withdrawal from that tiny country had given some heft to the verities of the ideologues of non-interventionist internationalism and a socialistic pattern of society. TTV was a witness to the most important events in the world and India. He had a balanced perspective on most developments and not surprisingly his writings reflected his personality. He was a dispassionate observer of economic and political developments of those decades. T T Ram Mohan has encapsulated the basic essence of his writings. Those days were really ecstatic and to my young mind, a bit idyllic. I was interested in books and after reading reviews in the ET, I coveted writing them myself. I was told to see TTV who was in charge of book reviews.