My senior colleague in UNI, Mr. Manhoar Shravan Pagar, passed away due brain haemorrhage at his residence in Pune's Patrakar Nagar. He was 85. He is survived by wife, a daughter-in-law, three daughters and grandchildren.
A son of a villager in Pimpalner, in Dhule district of Maharashtra, he had joined Signal Corps, of the Indian Army. He took premature retirement from the Corps and joined United News of India in Mumbai when the agency was in its infancy in the mid-1960s. He was assigned to set up its Bureau in Pune.
He was my boss when I was transferred from Mumbai to Pune as my first reporting assignment. "MS" as he was known among colleagues helped me and stringers to cover the city and sports.
He was my boss when I was transferred from Mumbai to Pune as my first reporting assignment. "MS" as he was known among colleagues helped me and stringers to cover the city and sports.
His story based on a historian's academic lecture on the Mahabharata's war had been featured by most of the 300 newspaper subscribers of the news agency. He presented the story based on the research of a historian and was lapped by the subscriber newspapers because of the angle he had chosen for the simple lead of the story: Was Mahabharata a fact of fiction?
I fondly remembered him for the encouragement he gave to me as the bureau manager at a time when senior journalists elsewhere in other establishments would try to discourage the youngsters.
MS specialised in the coverage of Pune race course. I had experienced it several times when sub-editors in English newspaper would wait for his race stories reaching them through the UNI teleprinters.
MS specialised in the coverage of Pune race course. I had experienced it several times when sub-editors in English newspaper would wait for his race stories reaching them through the UNI teleprinters.
MS worked in UNI's offices in Mumbai, Shimla, Kolhapur and Jabalpur besides Pune.
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