The Tribune Connection
- Roopinder Singh
- Feb 2
- 3 min read
February 2 is Founder's Day at The Tribune. Today marks 145 years since this remarkable paper has served its readers.
I wrote about the newspaper, my involvement with it, and what it means to readers.
The fortuitous placement of my article alongside coverage of the Jaito Morcha shows that The Tribune has been and remains "A Witness to History" as V N Dutta's history of The Tribune says.
In 2012, when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh launched VN Datta’s The Tribune: A Witness to History in Delhi, it seemed that the entire Tribune-reading Delhi elite was there, and no one wanted to leave.
Roopinder Singh
Like all English-speaking people in the region, I grew up reading The Tribune. Unlike them, I served the paper in various capacities from 1991 to 2020. Soon after I joined, someone asked me to get news about him printed. “But I saw it in the other paper,” I said. “No one will be convinced of my appointment unless The Tribune prints it,” was the reply, which had more than a grain of truth.
I lived in Chandigarh before The Tribune got here. Well, it was a long journey for the newspaper. Born in Lahore, it moved after Partition to Shimla, where I was born. A year later, it was in Ambala, and from there, finally, in Chandigarh in 1969. By this time, we were in Patiala, where we read the paper.
We all knew we had arrived in Chandigarh when we saw the news on The Tribune board atop the building. After moving back from New York at the end of 1990, I was keen to work at The Tribune.
The institution I joined took great pride in the fact that many of its employees were second, some even third, generation people, and through them, the ethos was transmitted to newcomers.
Our Editor, VN Narayanan, had shown remarkable courage and sagacity during the troubled decades of Punjab militancy. While I was there, other excellent journalists led the paper.
I joined the newsroom and soon learnt to work with grammarians like OP Sharma and Gurinder Singh, who considered any omission a sin. Senior colleagues like LH Naqvi and Swaraj Chauhan encouraged writing. TK Ramasamy had learnt Punjabi, and book reviews were his fiefdom where he nourished local talent.
At various times, I was put to work on the editorial, opinion and special pages, which attracted top talent and brought in diverse views, as did our Saturday and Sunday magazines and Book Reviews. In 1997, we worked on the content and visually-rich special supplement 50 Years of Independence.
I was a Mac user. My computer knowledge paid off in 1998, when the Trust Chairman, BK Nehru, said, “This boy knows what he is talking about.” To cut a long story short, soon we launched the Internet edition. It was and is a roaring success since our focus was on the needs of the online readers, who were ecstatic! An email said: “Hari Jaisingh tere sat put hon!” Our Editor was more than happy with his one son and daughter, thank you.
Print always lacks space. In the Internet edition, we were happy to have more pictures and longer articles, and our team leveraged this effectively during the tercentenary celebrations of the Khalsa at Anandpur Sahib in 1999. Two years later, with the same team, we launched Log in… Tribune (2000-04), where we discussed the latest in IT. Yes, the paper had shown it could effectively pivot for the future.
In the meantime, print still reigned supreme. The Tribune opened printing centres in Gurgaon (2005), Jalandhar (2005), and Bathinda (2007), which catered to multiple editions, which meant more work! However, it always pays off.
When we launched the Jammu and later Srinagar editions, people’s warmth transcended political and religious divisions, showing how strong the Kashmiri connection with The Tribune was. Even now, like all Tribune employees, I get a positive response and instant recognition when I say, “I worked with The Tribune.”
In 2012, when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh launched VN Datta’s ‘The Tribune: A Witness to History’ in Delhi, it seemed that the entire Tribune-reading Delhi elite — Punjabi, Haryanvi, Himachal and Kashmiri — was there! After the event, no one wanted to leave as they rediscovered each other and their roots. That’s The Tribune for you! It connects, and how!
— The writer is a former Senior Associate Editor.
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