Columns

Sathya Saran gave up her siestas to relieve a friend who edited the Sunday section of The Hitavada in Nagpur, so that he could resign and join his fiancé in Canada. The move boomeranged. Sathya found herself preferring work to sleep and would often write all four pages of the magazine section under different names, to make up for the paucity of writers in her city. The floodgates had opened. Soon she was freelancing for Youth Times, The Sunday Review, and Eve’s Weekly, all of which won for her the Rajika Kirpalani Young Journalist Award.

When The Hitavada closed down, Sathya moved to join Femina in Bombay and discovered a new passion -- women’s issues. Twelve years later, she took over as editor. It was both a challenge and a responsibility, but putting all the lessons learned through the years to good use, she helped to steer Femina to the top within a year. Upcoming writers, designers, and photographers joined her in the adventure and helped to build the magazine into a superbrand.

Playing mother hen to a long line of Femina Miss India aspirants and winners gave Sathya insights into how the young behave under pressure, a lesson that helped to shape the magazine for both the Woman of Substance and Generation W.

Sathya believes that journalism is a catalyst for creative work and so continued to write stories, some of which were gathered into a book titled Night Train And Other Stories. Theatre, teaching journalism, and music added their bit to her writing, and her column, Me to You, was soon being compared in popularity with the writings of Emma Bombeck.

Sathya continued her broad-spectrum association with her readers, giving them articles on everything from reproductive health to self-reliance to fashion and beauty. For 10 years she was on the Women’s Edition team of editors from third world countries and interacted with UN experts and others on issues of reproductive health, to share her learning with her readers.

Television and radio were other avenues through which Sathya reached out to women: her serial Kashmakash aired for Times TV on Doordarshan, and later on Star Plus, and was shortlisted for best drama of the year.

Sathya moved from being director, brand alliances, at World Wide Media to editing Me, the magazine for DNA. She is also the India correspondent for Ms magazine, and writes for other international publications. Most Saturdays are teaching days, as she takes the fashion journalism module for students of National Institute of Fashion Technology at Kharghar.

No more sleeping in the afternoons… but with so much happening, her response is, who cares!