Never felt she was our boss, treated us like family: Gauri Lankesh’s colleagues mourn her loss

The editor of Gauri Lankesh Patrike was murdered on Tuesday evening.
Never felt she was our boss, treated us like family: Gauri Lankesh’s colleagues mourn her loss
Never felt she was our boss, treated us like family: Gauri Lankesh’s colleagues mourn her loss
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On the busy East Anjaneya Street in Gandhi Bazaar, stands the office bearing the board 'Lankesh Patrike'. It was here that Gauri Lankesh, veteran journalist, and editor-columnist of the Gauri Lankesh Patrike was at work on Tuesday – checking the material for its next edition – just an hour before her death.

Standing outside the locked office, Satish S, who has worked with Gauri for 17 years, says that she had been at work until 7.30pm or 7.45pm on Tuesday evening.

“Our edition is supposed to come out today (Wednesday). She told me that she still had some material to check for it,” says Satish. She was also yet to write her editorial for the week, which she always did on Wednesday just before the edition was published, he says.

His lips quivering in shock and disbelief, Satish says, “We are all just blank. We don’t know what to think.”

For Satish and his colleagues, it never seemed like Gauri was the boss and they her employees.

“From the senior-most reporter to the office attendant, she was as friendly and social with everyone. I am so many years her junior, but she also addressed me in bahuvachana (respectful form of address). That showed how she treated everyone,” says Girish Taalikatte, reporter and editor of Udyoga, an employment news publication brought out by Gauri Lankesh.

(The office of 'Lankesh Patrike')

Arun Kumar G, a film journalist who worked with Gauri and runs a website called Cinibuzz.in, recalls the time when the Gandhi Bazaar area was disturbed in the aftermath of actor Rajkumar’s kidnapping. “Everything here was shut down, and we were all stuck in the office. She cooked food for us and made sure all of us were comfortable here.”

When it came to her work, Gauri was committed, fastidious, and meticulous, says Arun.

“She worked 16 hours a day. Once she came into the office in the morning, she didn’t stop working. She read every word that we published three times, and nothing escaped her eye. She would rewrite many of the articles herself,” he says.

“Once she started working on an article, even food and sleep didn’t matter to her. Many times, the rest of us would leave, but she would stay on till late in the night, working alone,” adds Girish.

None of her colleagues was aware of any threats against her, they say. “She would talk to me about everything, but she never said anything about any threats to her,” says Satish.

Arun says that although Gauri has faced opposition from numerous quarters, she was never one to be afraid and stop her work.

“Her only concern was whether the news we published was accurate, and whether it had news value. She never worried about things people said against her. She was always only thinking about the next story we had to do,” he says.

“Of all the things we learnt from her, she never taught us fear,” he adds.

“She was always fearless. She knew that people like her faced threats, especially after Kalburgi’s murder. But she did not care about that,” says Girish.

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