The Ramnath Goenka family hosted a cross-section of his friends and associates to mark his birth centenary in Chennai on Thursday. From left to right: Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley, industrialist Venu Srinivasan, Manoj Kumar Sonthalia, Saroj Goenka of the Express family and former Express Editor Kuldip Nayar.

CHENNAI: Ramnath Goenka's life and services were fondly recalled by a select gathering of friends and associates here on Thursday, his one-hundredth birth anniversary.

People from different walks of life from Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi and elsewhere met on the lawns of Hicks Bungalow where members of the family hosted an evening of remembrance and bhajans.

No venue could have been more appropriate. As its present occupant, Saroj Goenka, said: ``It was the house from where the founder of the Express empire shaped not just the paper's destiny but also the country's.

The programme began with a gentle stirring of the soul by the popular icon of music, Vani Jairam. A classicist, who has excelled in light music, she rendered a string of devotional songs, climaxing in a moving Ram bhakti geet.

More moving moments followed as speakers recalled the many facets of RNG's personality and stressed the importance of carrying on his legacy.

``The disappearance of one man has dwarfed the media,'' observed S Gurumurthy, a long-time associate of RNG, who helped fight the hundreds of prosecutions launched against the paper by the government. ``Goenka's love for the country was phenomenal because of his spiritual attachment to the land,'' he said.

Veteran journalist and former editor of Express News Service Kuldip Nayar recollected Goenka's role in fighting the Emergency. ``I was fortunate,'' he said, ``to have worked with the great man. He knew all about politics and when the Emergency was imposed, said how the country was taken over by the darkness of dictatorship, and how we all had to fight it.''

Industrialist Venu Srinivasan, who was treated by RNG as his own grandson, almost choked as he recalled the close relationship his family had enjoyed with Goenka. The man was always an enigma, Srinivasan said, and one needed a fourth dimension to understand the meanings of what he said.

``Ramnath Goenka could verily be called the single largest contributor to the existence of a free press in India,'' Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley said.

``During the Emergency'', he added ``despite the paper being threatened financially and at a time when other newspapers began to look like government leaflets, we (Jaitley was in jail then) would read 'The Indian Express' line by line to look for hidden messages to the people... And most often we found the paper defying censorship.''

Ramnathji was a ``no-holds-barred fighter'' who loved a fight. ``He knew how to fight and which ace card was to be kept up his sleeve for the crucial moment,'' Jaitley said. The lesson he had learnt from his association with RNG was how to survive within the system, he added.

Prabash Joshi, an editor who was close to RNG, said he admired his courage and passion for whatever he pursued.

Recollecting his association with RNG, his closest friend from Kolkatta, B P Bajoria said : ``He (RNG) was an important wheel in the country's fight for independence and was closely associated with its development. ''

Bajoria also highlighted that Goenka was `led a humble life, had simple tastes and enjoyed whatever he did'. ``He stood by his friends at all times,'' he added.

While endorsing the same view, B K Goenka, one of the closest living friends of RNG in the city also added that `it was a great joy for the Marwari community that Goenka had reached such an exalted position'.

Half way through the speeches, a short slide show projected in graphic detail some of the highlights of RNG's life _ from the time he became a sadhu (``fortunately his life of renunciation lasted only for two days,'' as the commentary said) to his fighting days as a newspaper crusader.

One side of the spacious and beautifully illuminated lawns was lined with panel boards carrying enlarged photographs of RNG in many moods and many passions.

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