RIP Umesh Upadhyay: A media scholar, poet and an all-weather friend

Not too many people call Umesh Upadhyay by his first name. “Umesh-ji” it has been for thousands of his professional journeymen, admirers and even supervisors.

As neighbours in a romanticised future, Umesh-ji and I had a deal that we’ll be a walking duo, if only to solve world hunger.

“Rohit-ji, mitti mein kaam karna hai,” he would add, promising to make the time to graduate from potted plants on the terrace of his current duplex in Vasant Kunj to growing leafy vegetables and shrubs the way they are meant to be.

Positivity was Umesh-ji’s middle name. A little past 60, he had the energy to birth a think tank and do countless symposia on exposing western media narratives against the India Story. Having seen his darling daughter Deeksha happily settled with Samay Mahendru, he was quietly hopeful that Columbia-trained son Shalabh would make the time similarly from NEWJ, a bet on the power of video shorts.

But fate had other plans on Sunday and Umesh-ji succumbed to a fall while supervising some civil construction work.

Remembering Umesh Upadhyay:

I saw the man for the first time 28 years back jostling in the crowded parking of Zee News amidst residences in South Extension. He had returned to the channel after a stint at Home TV and had done well enough to acquire a Maruti Zen (the other editors still had the 800). The task on hand was to emerge without scratching the beauty or a fight with the house in front. As I watched from a distance, Umesh ji’s parking skills came out just as good as his grip on marrying given resources. Add the nuances of narration and TV technology.

As time went by, a bigger skill I noticed was his relationship with people. I once was in a serious personal situation between two contentious parties. My approach was to talk to them one at a time and tell good things about the other. As a result, perhaps, both were turning hostile towards me! I called up Umesh-ji in some desperation. His advice was that I should continue talking to each party one at a time, but I must praise the particular person without bothering about the inconsistency! It worked. Amazing man!

Cut to the previous century, Umesh ji’s break up with Zee wasn’t when he expected. His younger brother and near look-alike, Sh Satish Upadhyay, a prominent BJP leader, came forward and the duo floated NewDelhi Communications Network Limited (NCNL) in a small office behind AIIMS. Production contracts weren’t easy to get, but save for a short foray as anchorman for Janmat run by Markand Adhikari, Umesh-ji never quite vied to return to an editorial role. Instead, he took upon a task to collate the written and spoken words of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, became an alter-ego to his childhood friend, Rajesh Shrivastava, who then owned Rockland Hospital, and finally around 2012 shifted to Raipur in Chhattisgarh to run Disha Educational Institute for another friend, Surendra Jain. This randomised, general management grounding and his inner reserves of patience and conscience made Umesh-ji my very first choice when Reliance afforded the opportunity in February 2014. I remember picking up the phone at 6 am. Umesh-ji, a very early riser, was in Raipur and all set to fly down to Delhi for meeting his former Zee colleague Rajat Sharma, co-anchor the General Elections for India TV. After very little waffling, he agreed to take the plane to Mumbai instead. The last ten-plus years in Reliance, including a tenure at Network 18 as president and media director, proved to be his golden years. The affection and respect he gave the institution were reciprocated in ample measure. 

Just last week, I noticed an advertisement that Central Bank had placed for the auction of the assets of Disha Educational Institute. I forwarded it to Umesh-ji and the reply he sent left me speechless:

“रामजी की ऐसी कृपा हुई कि आपने वहाँ से निकाल लिया। हमारे वांगमय में इसे निमित्त कहते हैं। इसे करने में आप निमित्त बने। रामजी को तो हम अनुभव ही कर सकते हैं परंतु जिसे वह निमित्त बनाते है वह तो हमारे समक्ष होता है। आप थे इसलिए ऐसा हुआ।

मेरा भी सौभाग्य है कि मैं रिलायंस में आया और फिर संयोग से कुछ कुछ काम भी होता रहा। सम्मान, धन और कुछ अच्छा करने का संतोष - सभी मिला। आप नहीं होते तो ये संभव नहीं था।”

[In Hindi it is called “nimitta”. You were an instrument in doing this. We can only experience Shri Ram, but the one whom He makes an instrument is in front of us. It happened because you were there. I am fortunate that I came to Reliance and then coincidentally some work started happening. Respect, money and satisfaction of doing something good - all came to me. If you weren’t there this would not have been possible]

Besides its eerie recency, just this one message and Umesh-ji’s 10 years as a valued colleague are a life lesson in at least five ways:

 * The imprint of Goswami Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas in Umesh-ji’s everyday life, a result of decades of observing his father Sh NK Sharma

* Umesh-ji’s deep empathy and pride in working for Reliance

* His sublime grace and gratitude even to ordinary actions of others

* His fortitude while going off the beaten track, including his masterly, “Western Media Narratives on India: From Gandhi to Modi” which completed a dissertation left half done as a student of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University in the early 1980s

* His deep love for Hindi and all things India

In Umesh-ji, the media in India has lost a scholar, poet and an all-weather friend.

(The writer is a former editor and Group Head of Communications at Reliance)