29 September,2009 07:57 AM IST | | Namita Gupta
He was the epitome of flamboyance, a complete charmer for those who have known him closely.
I first met him seven years ago, when he was an editor with an English daily and we were both watching a play.
I was an editor with a niche glossy magazine at that time and was introduced to him through a common friend. We spoke for a few minutes and went on with our lives. We met a few times at a few city events and that was that.
Then three years back, I was again writing for a city magazine and then we heard we had a new boss joining us.
Call it coincidence or a calling, it was Allen Mendonca! After his long stint that spanned over two decades with different leading city dailies and a brief hiatus in between, he had now taken over this place.
As an editor he was pro-active, always on the move, gung ho on what's happening in and around the city, fanatical about Bangalore to the core, an accomplished writer and a complete people's man.
Bangalore's a small city and long before I had met him I had heard of his 'philandering' reputation. Many called him a skirt chaser which I can vouch for being a misnomer now. Knowing him and his family, closely and at a professional level for a couple of years, all I guarantee that the man had a heart of gold and no such ungentlemanly habits.
He certainly carried around him a swaggering style and was a complete smoothie, when it came to drinking wine and chatting with women, though I would not like to speak for the two in the same breath. He was however as far as he could be from being a philanderer.
A curly mop of hair, always dressed to the hilt, spotted at many a socialite evenings in his suede jacket, often with a cigar in one hand, a wine glass in the other and probably another woman lending a keen ear. He was Bangalore's heartthrob, may I remind you however, that all this flamboyance in the presence of his loving wife Sandhya.
He would often call young girls 'sweetie' and young boys 'hero' and I would wonder if he was a little bemused when it came to names but that was Allen, just as he naturally was, for you.
I was with him on Sunday evening, just a day before he breathed his last, at a grand prix screening bash. He with his wine glass and me with mine, as we both gabbed on, talking about our lives. The world seemed just fine. But, strange are the ways of the world. Who would have ever known that, we would be seeing him for the last time that evening?u00a0u00a0
I mourn not the loss of just another fetching man, but a man who touched many lives. Allen's passing away will leave a deep void in the media industry as a whole and one in my heart too.
Allen passed away peacefully in his sleep and most of us got to know only early yesterday morning.
With a heavy heart and numbness in my fingers, I write this. I will attend his funeral at St Patrick's Church on October 1.
May his soul rest in peace.
