Ravish Kumar

Some Lesser Known Facts About Ravish Kumar

• Ravish Kumar is a popular Hindi journalist who is best known for his unique monologues in his show Prime Time. On 30 November 2022, he resigned from NDTV as Senior Executive Editor a day after Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy quit as the directors of the NDTV promoter company RRPR Holding Private Limited. ^[3]The Indian Express

• Ravish Kumar belongs to a modest family from Bihar.

• After completing his schooling at a convent school in Patna, he came to Delhi for his further studies in 1990.

• Ravish says that before coming to Delhi the only ‘big’ cities he had seen were Lucknow, Jamshedpur, and Ranikhet.

• In Delhi, Ravish was enrolled in Deshbandhu College, where lecturers like Anil Sethi and Rana Bahal became his mentors who encouraged and helped him in myriad ways. While talking about them, Ravish says-
  

  They taught me English, how to eat at a table, how to talk to girls, how to wear a tie.”

• After studying History at Deshbandhu College in Delhi, he started preparing for Civil Services. However, he could not get success in the Civil Services Examination.

• While in Delhi, Ravish was told that if he wanted to ‘look at girls,’ he should head to the M Block GK I Market.

• When Ravish Kumar came to Delhi, the one thing that scared him the most was the English- speaking people. He was so terrified by the English-speaking people that he rented a Barsati in the bylanes of Govindpuri, away from ‘English- speaking zones.’

• While in Delhi, Ravish Kumar’s landlord, ‘Sharmaji,’ would often advise him to learn English.

• Even by the end of his BA, Ravish could not become good at English. However, he went on to enroll for an MA in History.

• While pursuing his Master’s in History at Delhi University, Ravish was profoundly influenced by the brilliant Delhi University History Professor, the late Parthasarathi Gupta, affectionately known to his students as PSG, whose lectures on urbanisation became like a guide for him. They changed the way Ravish viewed the city.

  

• While pursuing his M.Phil at Delhi University, Ravish met his future wife, Nayana Dasgupta, who was studying at Indraprastha College.

  

• Ravish and Nayana dated for around seven-odd years. Ravish never had enough money, so they would visit coffee houses and go for long walks.

• When Ravish Kumar approached his parents to let them know about his plans to get married to Nayana, they strongly oppose the marriage; as Ravish is a Bhumihar Brahmin, an upper caste; while Nayana belongs to a Bengali Community.

• However, Ravish broke the ties with his family and got married to Nayana.

• After his post-graduate diploma in journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Ravish joined NDTV India in 1996 and went on to become one of the most popular Hindi journalists in India.

• Many of his shows at NDTV India have been liked both by the public and critics as well.

• Ravish Kumar is known for covering the invisible stories of ordinary Indian lives. The first “Ravish Ki Report” was on Paharganj. In the show, he covered the untouched lives of the city and presented them in a layman’s language.

• His brother, Brajesh Kumar Pandey, is an active politician in Bihar and is a member of the Indian National Congress.

• Ravish Kumar is often seen quoting not to watch the Television news as he considers most of the TV reporting to be biased; which leads astray the common people.

• He is also often seen publishing the posts on his social media accounts about being trolled on social media and for being interfered in his personal life.

  

• Ravish Kumar often complaints about receiving death threats mostly by some right-wing extremists.

• He developed a unique style of writing micro-fiction stories. He has given the term “Laprek” to these stories. Laprek stands for- Laghu Prem Katha. He has compiled these stories in his book- Ishq Mein Sheher Hona.

  

• He has also penned the book- “The Free Voice – On Democracy, Culture, and The Nation.”

  

• He also runs a blog, ‘naisadak.blogspot.com,’ where he publishes articles on myriad issues; mostly in the form of satires.

• The popularity of Ravish Kumar can be assessed by the fact that a popular YouTube channel The Screen Patti (TSP) runs a programme titled Rabish Ki Report in which actor Shivankit Singh Parihar portrays Ravish Kumar as “Raja Rabish Kumar.”

• For Creative Literature and Hindi Journalism, Ravish was awarded the prestigious Ganesh Sankar Vidyarthi Award in 2010.

• Ravish never thought he’d end up living in Delhi for over two decades, he says-
  

  I always thought I would go back to Bihar, but I never did.”

• In 2019, he became the first Hindi journalist to be honoured with the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award in Manila, Philippines.

  

• In September 2022, a documentary on Ravish Kumar won an award at Toronto International Film Festival. Filmmaker Vinay Shukla’s feature-length documentary titled “While We Watched” won the Amplify Voices Award at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF-2022). Titled “Namaskar! Main Ravish Kumar” in Hindi, the documentary chronicles the journey of Ravish Kumar as a journalist.

  

• Here’s a video in which Ravish Kumar is talking about his journey in NDTV India:

• Here’s an interesting video about Ravish Kumar’s biography: