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Vir Sanghvi says he had verbally accepted a better-paid job at The Times of India before choosing an uncertain editorship at ABP’s struggling Sunday magazine. In his memoir, he describes the decision not as a carefully reasoned career calculation but as an instinctive choice shaped by his trust in ABP executive Aveek Sarkar and the challenge of improving the magazine.
Two offers, with very different risks
In an excerpt from A Rude Life: The Memoir, published by Scroll on August 12, 2021, Sanghvi recalls weighing a concrete Times of India job against an offer from ABP to edit Sunday. His account is first-person memoir, not an independently corroborated record of the negotiations. Read the excerpt at Scroll.
| What mattered | The Times of India, as Sanghvi recalls it | ABP’s Sunday, as Sanghvi recalls it |
|---|---|---|
| Pay | More money | Less money |
| Location | Stay in Bombay | Move to Calcutta |
| Role | A solid, defined job | Edit the struggling Sunday; Sanghvi says the full designation would not be given for at least a few months |
| Opportunity | Join a major newspaper project with access to millions of readers, in Sanghvi’s description | Take on the work of improving a magazine he considered in need of substantial editorial effort |
| Practical footing | Remain in his existing city and professional setting | Arrive without arranged housing; later receive hotel and weekend-travel accommodations, according to Sanghvi |
Sanghvi says he believed Samir Jain could transform the newspaper business and saw the Times role as a safer, more lucrative opportunity. He offers no salary figures or precise readership count; “millions” is his description, not a quantified audience statistic.
Why he chose Sunday anyway
Despite having verbally accepted the Times job, Sanghvi says he took ABP’s offer for reasons he still could not fully explain. He later wrote: “Eventually though, for reasons I still can’t fully explain, I took the ABP job.” He says he liked and trusted Sarkar, and that the prospect of working on a struggling magazine appealed to him.
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The choice was not presented as a guaranteed promotion. The move meant lower pay, relocation and an initial delay before he would receive the full designation. Sanghvi’s account suggests the attraction lay less in title or security than in the editorial work itself: Sunday needed substantial improvement, and he believed he could take on that task.
How the transition unfolded
Because Sanghvi had already agreed verbally to join the Times, he says he told his friend Pritish Nandy, expecting Nandy to be able to break the news to Jain more easily. Jain later called to urge him to reconsider. In Sanghvi’s recollection, Jain even offered a route back to Bombay and the Times if the ABP job turned out to be a mistake.
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The practical arrangements in Calcutta were rough at first. Sanghvi says no residence had been arranged and that he was placed in a hotel he considered seedy. He moved to The Grand, which he recalls costing twice as much, and says Sarkar agreed to business-class weekend flights back to Bombay. Those arrangements softened the financial and personal cost of taking the lower-paid job.
Did Sanghvi regret turning down the Times?
In the memoir excerpt, Sanghvi says he did not have second thoughts about accepting the ABP job. He wrote: “Strangely enough, I never had a second thought about having taken the job, largely I think because, at some basic level, I liked and trusted Aveek, his Raj pretensions notwithstanding.” He also recalls that the Times tried to hire him again in 1990, though that later attempt is likewise memoir testimony.
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The story is therefore less a claim that Sunday was objectively the better offer than an account of Sanghvi choosing an editorial challenge over the clearer financial and professional advantages he associated with the Times job. His succinct description of the work ahead was: “I had my work cut out for me.”
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the memoir does—and does not—establish
Scroll identified the August 2021 excerpt as material from A Rude Life: The Memoir by Vir Sanghvi, credited to Penguin India. The details about the offers, his motives, the lodging and travel arrangements, Jain’s response, and the 1990 hiring attempt come from Sanghvi’s own recollection in that excerpt. The account does not provide exact compensation, a readership figure, or independent confirmation from the other people involved.
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