Veteran jounalist BRP Bhaskar dies at 92

Thiruvananthapuram: Veteran journalist BRP Bhaskar (Babu Rajendra Prasad Bhaskar) passed away here on Tuesday. He was 92. He had been admitted to a private hospital at Karamana for the past four days. He passed away in the hospital around 8 am.

Bhaskar shifted to Alive, a geriatric care home in Thiruvananthapuram, seven months ago. Brahmaputran, CEO, Alive, said that Bhaskar happily took part in a family get-together organised at Alive a week ago. ''It was his sister's birthday. There were around 50 people, he was so happy that day. He used to closely follow elections,'' said Brahmaputra.

Bhaskar retired from journalism and moved to Thiruvananthapuram in 1993. He shifted to Chennai in 2017. His wife Rama Bhaskar passed away in 2023 and his daughter Bindu died in 2019. Bhaskar braved many setbacks in his life by finding solace in writing and reading. In 2023, he chose to move to a care home at Raja Annamalai Puram from his house in Adyar. He had said then that Kerala was not a conducive place for the elderly people. His son-in-law Balaji and granddaughter are currently in the US. 

Throughout his life as a journalist and even post-retirement, he was a champion of human rights and marginalised sections of society. He was born at Kayikkara in Thiruvananthapuram in 1932. He took to journalism at a young age, inspired by his father A K Bhaskar who was a journalist and a social activist. 

Bhaskar began his career at his father's newspaper Navabharatham. He took up his first job in The Hindu daily at the age of 20 in 1952. He had worked with The Statesman, Patriot, UNI, Deccan Herald and Asianet TV. His books ' Newsroom' and 'The Changing Mediascape' threw vivid insights into an age where journalism thrived without the internet and mobile phones. 

Bhaskar recollected in his book ' The Changing Mediascape' that he decided to become a journalist at a time when Government service was the preferred job. His father wanted him to be a bureaucrat but Bhaskar could never think of himself as one. His professor in Mathematics at College, Balakrishna Sharma, learnt about his interest in journalism and gave the right advice. '' Mathematical training will help you in journalism, both disciplines demand precision'', are words Bhaskar held on to without compromise in his journalism career.