I am still in shock. Though he was older, Anil Dharker’s age never struck me because he was so active with Lit Live and the whole literary movement. My friends Shashi Baliga and Reena Agrawal work with his core team and Lit Live has a whole lot of spin-off events, and not just book readings and chats with authors. Reena for instance, organises LitLive 360@Campus Festival, with authors visiting colleges; and along with Amy Fernandes and Quasar Thakore Padamsee, she organises The Little Festival with children’s books. So, it has grown into something much deeper. It was a vision that he nurtured.

Of course, I knew him best as my boss at Sunday mid-day, where he was the editor. But, our association started earlier when he was the editor of Debonair and I was a fresh-out-of-college assistant editor for Gentleman magazine, where I’d write cocktail recipes for the back of the book.