Surajit Sen
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A profile
The Times of India, May 07 2016
Voice Independent India grew up with falls silent
Jawhar Sircar It was just on the first day of Independent India, just when `midnight's child ren' were catching up with their much needed sleep, that a tall young man walked into All India Radio's very British headquarters in Delhi.
His name was Surajit Sen and he had left the Army as seniors told him that it was rank conscious and promotions were neither guaranteed nor quick enough. So, he decided to serve the nation with his baritone voice as an English newsreader, a post that would bring him and his sister, Lotika Ratnam, and colleagues like Melville de Mellow, Riaz Kadir and Ranbir Singh more fame than they could ever expect.
They replaced and often bettered more `English' names and voices like Stephen and Vincent Charrier, the two Jaffreys and Nobby Clarke, which was more than a bit difficult.
Little did Lt Sen realise that a quarter of a century la ter he would be rubbing shoulders, both literally and physically , with Gen Arora as the world looked on in wonder at the ignominious surrender of Gen Niazi in Dhaka.
The 16th of December 1971 is a date no Indian would forget and it was Surajit Sen who was specially flown into Dhaka to read the running radio commentary and despatches that were heard with respect a thousand miles away .
His old trainees of AIR, all of who retired long ago at senior ranks, recall how he would come to the news service division in the beautiful art deco building on Parliament street well before time. Unlike most other newsreaders, Sen would take an active part in the backroom, talking to new editors and others whose existence were carefully hidden. After all, every news item was “cleared' by government authorities, as radio was an extension of the state apparatus. But Sen had no misgivings and he remained an old school newsperson to whom patriotism was more important in that form.
He maintained a safe distance from the questioners in the print media but was always available to Prasar Bharati and the Information Service for trainees. In his later years, his chief complaint was that news was no more controlled or dispassionate and the high decibels would make him moan. Sen was a sportscaster par excellence and he combined his news instinct best when he reported from amidst the mayhem of terror at the Munich Olympics. His English accent was the role model for several generations of aspirational Indians.
