Sachi joined as the Delhi Bureau Chief of Malayala Manorama and The Week situated in INS Buildings, in 1990. His transformation from a cub reporter in Bangalore to the head of the largest Indian regional language newspaper in Delhi and The Week was amazing. He took over the mantle from two giants in journalism, T V R and Shenoy, and later K Gopalakrishnan. This was a daunting task, but he succeeded admirably.
I worked with all three of them as the head of marketing in Delhi. My office was in the PTI building.
In those days, before the advent of fax machines and emails, the only mode of communication was teleprinter. We used to come every evening to the INS office to send messages to Kottayam, particularly lottery results. One day, Potti, the TP operator, was on leave, and when I reached the INS office, I saw Sachi at the TP machine, feeding the results one after the other. That was Sachi.
We worked together for five years, and of course, we had our differences, but that did not affect our personal relationships, which grew from strength to strength.
Sachi had a very clear idea about the economics of the media and always extended a helping hand to connect with bureaucrats and ministers for government business.
He was a fantastic narrator, and an evening with him was always fun and intellectually stimulating. He was blessed with a photographic memory, which helped him in his craft. We will miss those evenings.
When I got transferred to Kottayam, he gave me a copy of "Delhi is not far" by Ruskin Bond. It proved to be true. Sachi was always near, and will always reside in my pleasant memories.
My condolences to Chandrika, Nithin, Rohan, Lakshmi and Vaishnavi.