The elevator implosion of Tarun J. Tejpal and the plight of Tehelka as a result have been discussed ad nauseam after the first emails were leaked on 20 November. But the commentary, outrage and sympathy have come from the usual set of bold-face colleagues, rivals, friends, socialites, feminists and lawyers, among others. But how is…
Tag Archives: Shoma Chaudhury
Aroon Purie and Vinod Mehta on Tarun Tejpal
As former Tehelka editor Tarun J. Tejpal faces imminent arrest for the alleged sexual assault of a junior employee at a conclave organised by the magazine, two veteran editors—Aroon Purie of India Today and Vinod Mehta of Outlook*—write about the callow Chandigarh boy who branched out to become a brand. At India Today, Tejpal was…
Tarun Tejpal: Hubris and self-loathing in Goa
Tunku Varadarajan in the Daily Beast on l’affaire Tarun J. Tejpal: “What made Tarun Tejpal do this?” everyone asks. Some answers suggest themselves, the most unsettling of which is that, for all his rhetoric in the cause of women, Tejpal is, perhaps, just another unreconstructed, predatory Indian male who was playing the part of PC…
‘Tarun Tejpal was trapped in a skin not his own’
Former Outlook* publisher, Maheshwar Peri, who now runs Pathfinder Media, the magazine company which publishes Careers 360, on his friend and former colleague Tarun J. Tejpal**. *** By MAHESH PERI The stupidity of our nation gets greatly exposed with the extreme reactions to Tarun J. Tejpal—the cult following of his journalism at one end, and…
Online appeal to protect Tehelka journo’s privacy
The following is the full text of an online appeal to protect the privacy of the Tehelka journalist whose complaint against the magazine’s editor Tarun J. Tejpal resulted in his “offer” to recuse himself from office for six months. To all editors, journalists, bloggers, users of social media, and the public: Some websites and blogs…
POLL: Is sexual harassment rampant in media?
Shocking and disgraceful as it is, l’affaire Tarun J. Tejpal is sadly not the only incident of a sexual predator lurking around Indian newsrooms. Except that, in this case, a brave journalist—and her equally brave colleagues—broke the code of omerta and let the world know what was happening. But Delhi is not India, one magazine…
Lift yourselves up, dearie, or get into my elevator
Tehelka editor Tarun J. Tejpal‘s 312-word letter to managing editor Shoma Chaudhury, expressing his “offer to step down” and not attend office for six months following a “bad lapse of judgement, an awful misreading of the situation” with a younger female colleague, has received plenty of negative acclaim for its sheer lack of contrition. Inspired…
Tarun Tejpal steps aside as ‘Tehelka’ editor
The following is the full text of the letter sent by Tarun J. Tejpal, founder-editor of Tehelka, to the managing editor of the magazine, Shoma Chaudhury, at 2.58 pm today. The subject line is: Atonement. My dear Shoma, The last few days have been most testing, and I squarely take the blame for this. A…
Financial World arrives without the usual bluster
The Financial World, the business daily from the Tehelka stable, has made a quiet appearance on the stands, just three months after it seemed all but over for the newspaper promoted by the controversial entrepreneur and parliamentarian, K.D. Singh. The 16-page, two-edition broadsheet hit the stands in New Delhi and Singh’s hometown, Chandigarh, on Monday,…
Shoma Chaudhury in ‘150 most powerful’ list
Shoma Chaudhury, managing editor and one of the promoters of the weekly magazine Tehelka, has been named among the “150 Women Who Shake the World” in the re-launch issue of the American newsweekly, Newsweek. “Champions women in India’s celebrated newsmagazine Tehelka,” is the seven-word caption for Chaudhury. Newsweek has been relaunched this week under Tina…
Gandhian activism, fiery journalism & cocktails!
If Medha Patkar was the “box item” girl of the Narmada anti-dam saga, Himanshu Kumar is fast emerging as the poster boy in the Maoism story. No newspaper, magazine or television article on “the gravest threat to internal security” is complete without a mention of (or quote from) Kumar, whose non-governmental organisation Vanvasi Chetna Ashram…
Arun Shourie: ‘Intolerant. Abusive. Dictatorial.’
Shoma Chaudhury, the executive editor of Tehelka, does a much-required re-examination of Arun Shourie, the former editor of the Indian Express, who occupies an “adumbral position between liberal knight, self-righteous crusader and unselfconscious fascist”, in the context of a recent interview with his protege, Shekhar Gupta. “Shourie joined the Indian Express as executive editor in…
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