Old-timers of Bangalore may recall the early years of Deccan Herald with an enlightening daily column 'Over a Cup of Tea' which was more popular than the daily news.

Pothan Joseph's column, unique in its range of appeal and erudition, embellished the pages of many a newspaper for over four decades. Read by stalwarts of the freedom struggle and rulers alike, the freewheeling column mirrored the times but rose above the mundane with its intrinsic literary flourish and infinite variety.
Joseph could be devastating in his comments but his wit never hurt. It was gentle humour but adequate to make his victims squirm. Moderation and fair play were his watchwords.

Annie Besant, Gandhiji, Motilal Nehru, Sarojini Naidu, Rajaji and Jinnah are among the greats Pothan Joseph had worked with. Still he kept away from the nationalist movement. He was content to remain an observer rather than a participant.

When he accepted Jinnah's offer to edit Dawn in the early forties many eyebrows were raised. Some even labelled him a traitor. But he quit when Jinnah became uncompromising on Partition.

Joseph was an institution builder who nurtured the nascent Hindustan Times into a respectable daily in five years and brought fame to the fledgling Indian Express making it a formidable voice of the South. As the founder editor his contribution to the growth of Deccan Herald was immense.

What kind of a man was this editor extraordinary? T J S George tries to explore the Pothan mystique through Lessons in Journalism. The story of Pothan Joseph is as much a history of the nationalist press in India as the story of a restless soul's pursuit of professional satisfaction that takes him to twenty-six publications.

The author traces Joseph's roots in Central Travancore and his upbringing in a middle-class Christian family. He tried his hand as a teacher and upon his family's insistence studied law. But his heart was in writing.

There are vivid accounts of his days in the Bombay Chronicle under the tutelage of Benjamin Horniman, his tenure in Calcutta's Capital,  and also of the professionally rewarding stint as Hindustan Times editor when he attracted several gifted writers to the editorial team. Shamlal, Durga Das, Edatata Narayanan, G V Krupanidhi and Chaman Lal were his colleagues in HT.

Magnificent partnership
It was Joseph who spotted and groomed cartoonist Shankar and the duo had a magnificent partnership in the daily. The eventful years of his editorship of Indian Express have also been covered well.

His uncompromising campaign against the tyrannical rule of Sir C P Ramaswamy Iyer in Travancore, the diwan's arm-twisting efforts which failed against the editor but succeeded against proprietor Ramnath Goenka are dealt with at length.

Pothan Joseph is among the pioneers who demanded that journalism be treated as a learned profession and that journalists be paid fair wages. He was to come into conflict with managements for taking up such a position. The bohemian streak in him prevented Joseph from settling down to a fixed job for long. Though attached to the family he found little time for it.

In a milieu where the editor's role is being re-defined and readers are flooded with a daily dose of trivia, this book will be handy for anyone who considers journalism a serious calling. The given samples of Joseph's writings are all the more relevant.