Dr Arun Kumar, Jabalpur, Hitavad

Dr Arun Kumar, Jabalpur, Hitavad

Away from family, Indore affords ample time for introspection and retrospection to fill the vast solitude. Today as I remembered how I strayed in journalism in 1980, Dr Arun Kumar persistently flashed on the mind. He is my first Guru in journalism (and probably the only Guru if you think Guru is someone you learn anything useful from).

He was not a journalist though. Dr Arun Kumar was a lecturer in GS Commerce College, Jabalpur. He joined the launching team of Maharshi Mahesh Yogi-owned newspaper ‘Hitavad’ (Hindi) as part time journalist. He had had a brief stint as journalist in Banaras and that eminently qualified him to join the editorial team.

We had an amazing assortment of talented and somewhat eccentric youths in the editorial team. We had an unorthodox MBBS  ( Dr Yogendra Shrivastava), an exceptional theatre artiste (Arun Pandey), a multitasking bundle of energy (Brij Bhushan Shakargayen, photographer), perpetually angst-filled NGO activist (Rajesh Nayak), a veritable encyclopedic of Jabalpur (Shailesh Mishra, Guddu) to name but a few.

I joined the paper accidentally because I happened to be Arun Pandey’s friend and also because I could write well. Beyond that, I had neither appetite nor aptitude for journalism. Many of us owed our entry in Hitavad to Gyanranjan, the editor of Pahal, who was unannounced editorial adviser to the paper.

Gyanji chose to associate himself with the newspaper on request of Anand Shrivastava, Maharshi’s nephew, whose stars in the multi-billion spiritual-commercial organization shone brightest at that time. Anand was Gyanji’s student in the GS College.     

Dr Arun Kumar and Rajiv Shukla were guest editors, so to say. Like Dr Arun Kumar, Rajiv too had some working experience in a newspaper in Banaras. He had done some course in journalism. Rajiv was then programme officer in Agriculture University. He later joined All India Radio and rose up the ladder fast due to competence and erudition. Both Arun Kumar and Rajiv were voracious readers of Hindi and English literature. Dr Arun Kumar was witty and Rajiv humorous ( sometimes black and wry humour) .

I was immensely taken in by their talents. Commonality of reading literature cemented friendships among us in no time. Dr Yogendra Shrivastava, who happened to be Dr Arun Kumar’s neighbour, also shared our reading traits-- and worldview, to a great extent. So, we were all a small debating society for a while.    

Rajiv was almost my peer while Dr Arun Kumar must have been seven-eight years older to us.

What I found most fascinating about Dr Arun Kumar was his inimitable gift to make most difficult things look simple. Being rookies, we would be too excited on the workplace to make a rational selection of news. The overexcitement poorly reflected in our reporting skills as well.

Verbiage is a common ill that afflicts reporting of beginners in journalism. We were, of course, no exception, though I fared little better than most others on this count.

Dr Arun Kumar would, in his characteristic wit, explain the virtues of simplicity in reporting or headlining. Never ever he sounded condescending in explaining basics of journalism. Rajiv too was a great help in our formative days.

Not only in journalism, in other aspects of life too  Dr Arun Kumar’s facility to simplify matters would astound me.  GM Muktibodh was all the rage in those days among Marxist youths. Most critics I heard or read would hold forth on Muktibodh’s poetry sounded either demagogue or esoteric or, simply put, nonsense.

Dr Arun Kumar helped me understand Muktibodh in a remarkably simple language. That helped me go through the  oeuvre of the great poet in six volumes with the kind of confidence I had never experienced before. The same held true for other writers as well.

Dr Arun Kumar was not a critic; he was a teacher. His elder brother Dr Shirish Kumar was critic and professor in Hindi literature in RDVV. Both the brothers could not have been more different in approach to, at least, literature.

Dr Arun was cousin of Gyanranjan and both were colleagues in the GS College. I sensed a healthy respect for each other in them.  

Deconstruction of poetry, persons and polemics with reasonable dose of witticism was Dr Arun Kumar’s forte. The uncluttered analysis would come to him naturally, without efforts. He was exceptionally good at laughing at himself and that, in my view, must have contributed a great deal in making Dr Arun Kumar what he was.  He lived an austere life, without vehicle, in simple house with an adorable wife.

Although we used to laugh at whole range of people, I never discerned any rancour in the humour. I don’t know where Dr Arun Kumar is now. Wherever he is, I wish he knew how much I still respect him.