A backbencher ACJian remembers TJS George, a trailblazer who strode hurdle-ridden landscape of print journalism in India like a colossus for seven decades

TJS George passed away in Bengaluru. PIC/X/@churumuri

For most mid-day readers, the name Thayil Jacob Sony George, or simply, ‘TJS’, as he was referred to by close friends and family, might not ring a bell instantly. But for many journalists who graduated from (then Bangalore’s) Asian College of Journalism — and I am guessing, there must be a few in our city too — the mention of his initials is bound to draw up an aura-tinted memory. A giant of India’s print journalism landscape breathed his last on October 3 in Bengaluru, at the age of 97.

Attending journalism school, and heading out for field reporting assignments in an alien city back in the day, was a very different ballgame, compared to today’s digi-supported ecosystem. No cellphones. No Google Maps. Pay-by-the-hour internet in cyber cafés. Those were tough times to crack a Page 1 for ACJ’s in-house newspaper. Even tougher was the steely demeanour that pervaded the classroom each time TJS would step in, unannounced,........

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