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Sunday, November 22, 2009

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Sathya Saran
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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!

more...
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There is an air about India

Slowly but surely the discoloured, don’t care, chalta hai mood that India has worn for so long when it comes to its services, is changing.
October 11, 2008

A dogged commitment for life

The dog was obviously pining. It sat with its paws on either side of its nose, looking nowhere, completely disinterested in the comings and goings around it.’
September 28, 2008

Ganpati, the benign presence

The city loves him… it’s difficult not to. After all, he’s been a part of Mumbai’s identity for decades now.
September 14, 2008

Feeling the pain of others

There are so many worlds different from the world we know, and yet we live blissfully unaware of them, unless fate decides to push us into a strange new orbit.
August 31, 2008

Requiem for unsung soldiers

High up in the Himalayas, in windy Drass, which is in Kargil to be exact, are two Army-run spots that could well become tourist highlights for travellers passing that way..
August 16, 2008

We must keep the hills alive

As the plains fall behind and the mountains surround us, there is a definite change in the air.
August 2, 2008

The nature of all things

I don’t know how many of us have time to read anymore… as in books, serious and contemplative, so I am going to paraphrase something I read.
July 19, 2008

A sincere request to all men

This one is strictly for the men who read. It’s time you had a man to man talk with the guys around you. The ones who don’t read, can’t read, won’t read.
July 5, 2008

Spooked out in Chiang Mai

Villa 59 is built of sweet-smelling wood, all two floors of it. Latticed windows overlook a lotus pond with dreamy dragonflies buzzing over it
July 4, 2008

Stapled to bad practices

Everyday in every office around the city, and in every city, town, and elsewhere, the mail man or the courier delivers tens, if not hundreds of envelopes.
June 22, 2008

Namaste’s forgotten graces

Across the world, the folding of hands implies supplication and humility. In India we realised that the Godly spirit met us through the greeting.
June 8, 2008

Peace comes dripping slow

Passed over, as it swept past, with its bag of goodies, placing a high rise here, wiping out a mill there, putting down flyovers and paved roads wherever fancy dictated.
May 25, 2008

Life in the heart of Mumbai

Sometime ago, I persuaded a colleague to put the rice he was sending back in his plate to the canteen into a bag and give it to the poor children outside the office.
May 11, 2008
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