Chandan Mitra Whom We Knew

 Chandan Mitra Whom We Knew

Chandan Mitra was a man of varied interest. His flair for writing took him to the sky and he could pen thoughts even in adverse circumstances. Having joined Hindustan Times in 1992 or perhaps earlier than that hundreds of active and budding journos had the golden opportunity to work with him. He was the one who proffered the idea of writing independently and with intuitive skills. When terrorism was at its peak in Punjab he saw to it that reportage in HT was absolute. He constantly cajoled journos to bring the best in them and perform. Perhaps in the '80s he had worked in Times of India and range of other  publications before moving to behemoth publication HT.

Having joined HT in November 1993 i had the blessings of working with him and he was open to the idea of i writing in foreign affairs despite being a junior. All stories written by me were not accepted in totality and yet Chandan as he was fondly called saw to it that justice was done to my laborious efforts. As long as he was in HT my stories on foreign affairs got clinically and periodically accepted and i salute the man who gave the ladder to rise. There was stiff resistance from the News Desk and some working in the bureau that how could a sub editor do stories on foreign affairs and Chandan stood his ground that if the story furnished by me had merit it could be published. During range of interactions with him he revealed that i had the potential to be Assistant Editor and that observation was quite laudable from his side. I still remember my tete-a-tete with Australian Foreign Minister on Spratly Islands was too long to be accepted and he sent it for inclusion in the Sunday Supplement. During that period i had been to Tirumala in 1996. On my return i offered Tirumala Prasadam to Chandan and he was more than pleased to accept the same. I can fondly recall that a story on Kyrgyzstan was one he readily accepted and it got published in no time.

He was one journo who could raise raise story from a state of slumber and reach zenith with his writing skills. In June 1996 he moved to the newspaper The Pioneer as full-fledged Editor and dominated the proceedings for over two decades. He even went on to become its owner later. His flamboyant writing skills and his respect to every individual no matter whether he was a person with sober background for instance a labourer or technician  or one with erudite background was one that made him special.