DEATH OF A JOURNALIST

The late Umesh Mahambre in every sense represented the old school Goan journalist.
A servile, petty closet carnivore, with a penchant for networking for non-professional ends. For a large part of his career, Mahambre slaved for the Dempos and The Navhind Times.
We really do not wish to embarrass the dead and would have honestly preferred to fit the term ‘yeoman service’ somewhere in the earlier line, but we couldn’t get ourselves to describe Mahambre’s efforts as “a yeoman service”. A yeoman has some pride.
He worked his heart out for the newspaper and the company, which runs it. Take our work for it. He did. Come rain or shine, Mahambre was out slugging it out for his paper or his numerous bosses.
Need some permissions to organise an event or say some urgent networking with some government official or say some NOCs (No objection certificates) from the cops or some friends/clients need to be shown about Goa… some movie tickets to be arranged… some passes to be conjured… the Dempo house called either Arun Sinha the editor or if matters were desperate Mahambre was sought, roused, hunted…
Mahambre was just that sort of a guy, who’d generally be tough to find, but always loved to be found.
For years he woke up every morning in his flat located at the St Inez government quarters, to find two carrots hovering around his eyes.
The smaller carrot hanging by a slender thread, was the one tugged by The Navhind Times advertising boss Vijay Kalangutkar, who’d promise that he’d put a good word about him to Srinivas Dempo, the big boss at Dempo Group of Companies. The bigger carrot was yo-yoed by the editor Arun Sinha. This lure was the position of chief reporter he was forever vying for in vain.
We are pretty sure that Mahambre would have made for a remarkably incompetent chief reporter, considering the little respect he commanded and his spineless traits, but this fantasy had been slipped like a potion into his gullet.
Why are we writing about him?
Like we said Mahambre died last year, leaving behind his wife Tanuja.
Tanuja holds a temporary job at the Saraswati mandir library. Tanuja was publicly promised a job somewhere in the Dempo group of companies and institutions by a senior Dempo trustee. A guy called Sunil Prabhudessai, who’s Srinivas Dempo’s ManFriday in more ways than one.
Oh… she was relieved. Cause from what we know Mahambre died almost a pauper.
Normally, we wouldn’t have pursued this story. It goes against our stated position of journos accepting philanthropy.
But her journo husband’s dead. And a promise was made to her. A promise made at a time when Mahambre’s soul was perhaps still slipping past the troposphere.
The promise has not been fulfilled for whatever reasons. And she’s been waiting. And petitioning. And waiting.
Nothing’s coming through.
What’s coming through and past the Dempo House gates is the slipstream caused by Srinivas Dempo latest acquisition, a third Mercedes in his fleet.
Looks like there’s a job for a driver vacant now…
Tanuja can wait maybe…