Remembering A.T. Parthasarathy, the man with an indomitable spirit

Indian sports journalism on Sunday lost one of its leading lights when veteran journalist A.T.P Sarathy passed away at a suburban hospital in Mumbai. Suffering from malaria, Sarathy, who is survived by two sons and two daughters, had celebrated his 93rd birthday in the ICU and passed away the next day at midnight on 23rd. In a career spanning over four decades, Sarathy extensively wrote on hockey, football, cue sports, tennis and also covered the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul apart from covering myriad nationals. He was a witness to India’s dominance in world hockey and also its sharp decline thereafter.   

Some of the publications that Sarathy contributed for include Bombay Chronicle, Bombay Sentinel for which he wrote columns, and The Indian Express of which he progressively became the sports editor. He also wrote for Deccan Chronicle, The Asian Age, The Hindu group’s Sport and Pastime, the Daily, and The Illustrated Weekly of India, under a pseudonym ‘PAT Sarte’.

Former Indian cricket captain Sunil Gavaskar led the tributes for Sarathy. “Just heard about the passing away of A.T.P. Sarathy, he was a top writer and a good, old-fashioned journalist. You don’t find too many journalists like him anymore. May his soul rest in peace,” Gavaskar said. “He was the last of the real stalwarts. I would say he was an all-rounder. There was not a sport that he did not cover. He was a very fast writer and wrote to-the-point pieces,” recalled veteran journalist Raju Bhartan.

Sarathy devoted a lot of time to cue sports and like hockey, also saw rise of billiards in India. “He believed in sailing against the wind. When billiards had begun to gain prominence and needed to be highlighted, he wrote the biography of Wilson Jones which was titled ‘Billiards King, Wilson Jones’ in 1977,” Mr Bharatan said.

The veteran journalist also took active interest in welfare of sports journalists and was the president of Sports Journalist Association of Mumbai and later became president of the Sports Journalists Federation of India. “I have never seen a more disciplined man in my life. He was a very good administrator too and ensured there was complete decorum at all our meetings. He took some excellent decisions which helped the SJFI,” said Chandrashekhar Sant, senior journalist and a family friend of the Sarathys.

While his articles aroused a great deal of interest, Sarathy also doubled as commentator for All Indian Radio. “He was a keen commentator and given his peculiar English accent and style, his commentary was well followed. In those days television coverage was limited and radio was an important medium,” Mr Bharatan said.

Mr Bharatan also remembers Sarathy for his love of music. “He was an absolute authority on Carnatic music. He understood music and was an admirer of S.D. Burman. I had many a discussion with him about music.”