With so much news bubbling in the never sleeping country, within a few weeks, she would be forgotten. To commemorate her death anniversary, surely the press club would host a dinner and fabulous speeches would be made by people who only offered criticism, when she was around. Why not, her story might even turn out into a Bollywood script.
She belonged to a new breed of rationalists, who dare to walk off the well-worn path trodden down by the majority. She believed, it is always easy to pretend to be a media Star, when working in a cosy newsroom backed by solid financial muscles of the corporate world, and where, all you have to do is wait for the postman to drop some ready-to-publish news, kindly mailed by those sharing obscure interests. Running a media outlet on your own, carrying the burden of the whole organisation, all while sticking religiously to an editorial line which constantly challenges the establishment, is a feat, very few can boast of. And she is one among those few. Even going to the extent of standing against her very own family who wanted a lenient editorial line. She not only had the mettle to persevere against the odds but also prolonged the legacy of her father by maintaining her publication Ad-less.
Throughout her life, she strived to muster people against communal politics, caste system, which she stood convinced were the root causes of the illness affecting the largest democracy in the world. She published hundreds of articles with such conviction, putting to shame reporters from the mainstream media to whom “journalism” boils down to parroting tainted information.
Her publication suffered the dire consequences of digitalisation with circulation falling to a meagre 15 000 copies lately. Yet, her sharp pen continued to cause havoc amongst those she denounced. She was too tough to put up with and had to be taken down. But little did the fanatics understand, trying to silence truth by death is like emptying the sea with sieve.
Her writings aimed at triggering elementary common sense in the minds of her beloved people and where the ink failed, blood has succeeded, as hundreds of thousands countrymen mourn her death, while millions across the world discover this amazing person.
Rest in peace, Gauri Lankesh.
