New Delhi For the Indian media, 1980s was the decade of remarkable jump from print to television. The coming of the colour television and the first direct telecast of the election results was a watershed moment. During this decade two figures came to be closely associated with Indian television – Prannoy Roy and Vinod Dua.

While Roy emerged the anchor for the educated, and he remains that way, Dua was the man of the masses. The two together did the psephology shows and poll result analysis bulletins on Doordarshan, which then enjoyed a monopoly. Roy may have drafted Dua as the translator of his analysis made in English into Hindi, Dua held his own and emerged as more than a mere translator.

Dua, who passed away on Saturday at the age of 67, belonged to Delhi in true sense. His parents had migrated from Pakistan and Dua grew up in a refugee colony. He graduated and did masters in English literature from Delhi University in the 1970s, again an era which saw many a sapling on campus later become colossus of the media world – Rajat Sharma, Chandan Mitra, Swapan Dasgupta, Harish Khare, to name a few. Prabhu Chawla and Prannoy Roy were a few years senior to them.

While most of his contemporaries remained limited to politics and governance, both in print and television, Dua gave cultural journalism a new meaning. This is not to take away the credit for his news feature programmes on Doordarshan, NDTV, Zee, India Today, Sahara, Sony and many more. No wonder he became the first recipient from broadcast journalism of the prestigious Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in journalism.

While Dua is listed as a progenitor of the poll result analysis, he gave his heart to food. The production of his immensely popular television show ‘Zayka India Ka’ was actually putting on screen his true-life likings. Much after he had become a television personality, he could be seen frequenting the eateries in Kingsway Camp close to Delhi University. These were the party points of 1980s and even 1990s when burger was still to replace Chicken Masala as the essential party food.

His show ‘Zyaka India Ka’ on NDTV gave the ‘dhaba’ and canteen food a place of respect on the Indian menu card. It also laid on the platter the culinary diversity of the country. And he took pains to explain at the end of every episode that he paid bills for whatever he ate. Many of his ilk are happier reviewing food for upmarket restaurants and five-star hotels without caring to pay the bill.

That was Vinod Dua belonging to that genre of journalists who took pride in their work and not the network.

(First published in The Sunday Standard)