Perfectionist, Fun, Warm: Shammi Narang on DD News Presenter Gitanjali Aiyar

Gitanjali Aiyar – one of India's first English TV news presenters – passed away on 7 June. She was 71.

This is so surreal. One never expects a sad moment. I never thought that I will have to talk about Gitanjali like this. Gitanjali Aiyar – one of India's first English TV news presenters – passed away on 7 June.

I did my first bulletin for Doordarshan in 1982. And she started somewhere in 1975-1976. She was a heartthrob to millions.

We had a lovely stint together for almost 22 years. Her biggest asset, I would say, was her command over the English language – diction, pronunciation and enunciation.

The moment Gitanjali used to come to the make-up room, she used to steal the show. She used to speak with so much gravitas. Mashallah unki language pe jo command tha because she sailed both the boats – All India Radio (AIR) and television – and both different genres. She was looking after people’s song requests on the one hand, and on the other, she was very impersonal while reading the news. That is why her voice modulation was so good!

Whenever youngsters used to visit the office as part of their college orientation, our Director used to tell them listen to Gitanjali or Neethi (Ravindran). Komal (GB Singh) was also very popular at that time. Even the editors used to tell trainees that if you want to upgrade your skills, you should learn from Gitanjali.

'The First Time I Met Her It Was Like Meeting A Celebrity'

Gitanjali used to read the English news bulletin, while I used to read the Hindi one but our newsroom was common and the editorial was the same. The staff normally used to sit together and the make-up room was also the same.

In fact, she was senior to me. I think she started in the mid-’70s. She started at the All India Radio. She would do ‘Forces Request,’ where I think she played English songs on people’s request. At that time, ‘Forces Request’ and ‘Date With You’ were very popular on the radio.

The first time I met her, it was like I was meeting a celebrity. My legs were shivering. But she was very welcoming. Neethi, Salma (Sultan), Komal, they all made our batch very comfortable. I was the only one who was chosen for the Hindi bulletin. So, I became close to everyone.

When we watched them, it seemed like that the English newsreaders must have been introverts and very serious people but Gitanjali was very warm. When I went and spoke to them, they explained to me the nitty gritty of the whole system. Within the first month of joining, I had made friends with all of them.

Among the English newscasters, Niti Ravindran, Gitanjali, Sheela Chaman were very popular among the women, and Tejeshwar Singh and Pankaj Mohan were known among the male newscasters.

We used to meet very often in office because the Hindi news bulletin came right after the English one.

'At That Time, News Meant News'

We were part and parcel of every drawing room. Everything used to be so impersonal. We never used to add any masala. The news was sober, there used to be one shot – a middle close-up – and there used to be no teleprompter.

We used to look at the paper and read. The introduction paragraph was usually extempore. It used to be very natural. People understood that we have not memorised these lines, and we are just reading for you.

At that time, even the audience was very serious, and for them, news meant news. They also did not expect masala from us.

'We Didn't Lose A Newsreader. We Lost A Perfectionist.'

There was a very peculiar thing about Gitanjali. Even when we had a fun conversation in the make-up room, Gitanjali always used to carry a pen with her set of papers with her. She laid a lot of emphasis on punctuation. So, she used to mark the punctuations and the pauses on the papers.

Unka sync kamaal ka tha. She used to not miss what we were talking about either. She was equally involved in the conversation but simultaneously paid attention to her script also. We used to often ask her – “Gitanjali, do you have two brains?”  

She was a perfectionist. She never wanted to take any risks with the bulletin. She used to ensure that it was 100 percent clean and error-free.

If she found any typing mistakes in our script, she used to always encourage us to correct them with a pencil. Ek baar jab nahi kiya, socha koi baat nahi dekh lenge, andar jaake naani yaad aa gayi.

Gitanjali used to point out mistakes to the editors saying that the structuring of the sentence does not seem proper, 'please change it'.

She was so versatile – first she did 'Forces Request' at AIR, then a serious news reader, and then also starred in a fiction show called 'Khandaan'.

'Fans Used To Ask Gitanjali About Her Barber'

Although we were all serious news presenters, the atmosphere of the make-up room was always light and fun. People used to expect us to goof-up during the bulletin because we used to be chatting and joking till the very last moment. They were surprised when we carried ourselves so seriously on-screen.  

We were wedded to our profession.

We used to often gossip over coffee and tea and share light moments in the make-up room. For fun, Gitanjali often used to read her fan-mail. We used to have a pigeon box in our office, and our office boy used to come and deliver our letters to us. Those letters had many funny anecdotes.

In her fan letters, Gitanjali was often asked about her barber. Even though her hairstyle was not loud at all. But during Doordarshan days, a small variation was also prominently visible to the people.

'Finally, Who Read The News?'

We were all like a family. We used to keep going to each other’s houses for parties.

I remember my son Dishant’s first birthday in 1990, the next day’s newspaper had a headline which read – “Finally, who read the news?” This is because everyone came for the party.

At that time, everything was noticed. There used to be only one channel. We were no less than film stars, frankly.

Last I met her was during a talk show. At that time, I had told her jokingly, “You’ve lost so much weight. You should come to our house. We are Punjabis. We’ll feed you a lot.” She was tall, always very thin but she had grown frail too.

Shammi Narang had started his career with Voice Of America (VOA) and has rendered his voice in many commercials since then. While doing these commercials, Narang was scouted out for news. He renders his voice for voice-overs in metro rails across India.

(As told to Aakriti Handa)