e
readers. But this in itself is not enough for the
success of a paper, as any publisher will vouch,
without advertisements, which is the main revenue
provider. And that is exactly what we lacked. This
could be because of a variety of factors, including
perhaps, bad management. After several appeals to the
readers via the editorials for such revenue support
bore no results, we decided to suspend publication, as
we could no longer continue suffering losses. We still
hope to restart, provided the finance is available; but
for the moment we haven't a clue of where this money is
going to come from.

Though sports has been my first love, reporting on
sports has been an add on. Except for a brief stint on
the sports desk of the Free Press Journal, my main
grounding on the news and reporting desk was with the
Times of India, Bombay, and then on The Navhind Times
and back to the Goa page of the Times of India,
Bangalore edition, as a stringer, where I also did a
lot of sports reporting. I believe that sports
journalism helps a lot in the shaping of a good
all-round writer, simply because it gives one a free
reign to use descriptive language and a variety of
verbiage, ordinarily not suited for general reporting.

Be that as it may, I was fortunate enough to work as a
correspondent for many publications. Of particular
mention was the Indian Post, run by the Singhanias in
Bombay and edited by that time by S. Nihal Singh. The
paper was to run into trouble later on and later had to
close down. By this time, Vinod Mehta had taken charge
as the Editor, and subsequently quit, to start The Independent,
belonging to the Times of India group. Many of us
with the Indian Post joined the editorial team under
his leadership in 1989. Incidentally, the Executive
Editor, Dina Vakil, who left The Independent to join
the Times of India, thanked me in a letter dated May 4,
1990 for my support to the newspaper. I have my utmost
regard for all these three, Nihal Singh, Vinod Mehta
and Dina Vakil, for their personal gestures.

Among the other major papers where I served as
correspondent, were the Financial Express for nine
years, the Afternoon, the Tribuna of then Portuguese
Macau, a news agency from Lisbon Noticias de Portugal
and the NCWC News Service, Massachusetts, USA. It was
hard work, and when I look back at those times, I am
amazed how I was able to keep to my schedules and enjoy
doing it.

Such challenges apart, it has been a g