Kumar, 47, is one of the country’s foremost news anchors and hosts NDTV India’s flagship show, Prime Time. His Facebook page alone has over 1.4 million followers. The anchor is loved and reviled with almost equal ferocity. Fan mail and abuse, at times even life threats, fly at him frequently.
Clad in a black T-shirt and track pants, he is sitting in his living room one fine morning, glancing at the newspaper, his grey hair still slick from the bath. As his gaze reaches the headline, ‘No slowdown, say Amazon and Flipkart’, he emits a sigh, “Achchha bhai, nahin hoga phir (All right, if you say so),” then sips from the glass of chirayta (a herb) water sitting next to him. Keeps the tummy fixed, he says. His three-bedroom apartment is full of life—stained sofas, wind chimes, a refrigerator adorned with fridge magnets, framed photos of puffy new-borns, plaques and books. Phone in hand, Kumar scrolls through his Twitter and Facebook timelines, before going through the messages. His phone number is widely available and at times becomes the bane of his existence. But it also helps him keep an ear to the ground.
“Sir, I am big fan of yours. I am coming from Patna to meet you. All I want is to hug you for two minutes and cry,” he reads out a message on his phone. A request for a two-minute meeting seems harmless, unless there are 200 of them pouring in everyday. The doorbell rings and the domestic help attends to the door. “There’s a carpenter,” she says. “Carpenter? I did not call any. Ask her (his wife) if she placed a request for one,” Kumar’s voice is soaked with suspicion. His eyes do not leave the entrance until the help confirms that his wife had indeed called the carpenter. The death threats keep him constantly on his guard. Between this moment and that, between a demigod status and a perennial scare, lives Ravish Kumar.
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