Prominent Indian journalist Gulshan Ewing has died in a care home in London due to corona

Prominent Indian journalist Gulshan Ewing has died in a care home in London due to corona

A well-known journalist in India who used to hang out with Bollywood and Hollywood celebrities has passed away at a care home in London.

Gulshan Ewing was 92 years old and died in a care home in Richmond, London.

Confirming his death to the BBC, his daughter Anjali Ewing said: "I was with him when he breathed his last. Despite being elderly, he did not have any other disease.

From 1966 to 1989, Gulshan Ewing worked as the editor of two popular Indian magazines, Ewe's Weekly and the film magazine Star and Style, and was a celebrity in her own right.

Nobel Prize-winning author VS Naipaul, in his book India: A Million Mutant Novo, has described Gulshan Ewing as "India's most popular editor".

Gulshan Ewing has the record of being the only Indian journalist to be given the longest interview by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Image copyrightANJALI EWING

Image captionGulshan Ewing interviews Gandhi for the longest time as PM, a record

As editor of Eves Weekly, she trained many young journalists, and as the Feminist Movement's feminist campaign grew in India in the 1970s, she kept the magazine up to date. Assumed responsibility.

As editor of Star & Style Film Magazine, he befriended Bollywood and Hollywood celebrities and celebrities. She used to write about him and party with him.

Image copyrightANJALI EWING

Image captionShe was copying Carrie Grant's speech

In the past week, news websites have published pictures of him interviewing famous Hollywood actors Gregory Peck, Carrie Grant and Roger Moore. In some pictures, she is seen eating with Alfred Hitchcock, while in another, she is seen talking to Prince Charles.

In one photo, she is taking pictures with Eva Gardner, and in another, she is teaching Danny Kay how to tie a saree.

His daughter says that their friendships in Bollywood were very deep. She used to go to Rajesh Khanna's film sets. Dilip Kumar, Shami Kapoor, Dev Anand, Sunil Dutt, and Nargis used to join in the feasts and she has also danced with Bollywood's 'Greatest Showman' Raj Kapoor.

Image copyrightANJALI EWING

Image captionGulshan Ewing was a close friend of Rajshi Khanna and Shami Kapoor

He was born in 1928 in Mumbai (then Bombay) to a Parsi family. She was one of the few women in independent India to turn to journalism.

Before becoming editor of two major magazines, he worked as a journalist for several newspapers.

She moved to London in 1990 with her husband, Guy Ewing. Guy Ewing was a British journalist. They have two children, daughter Anjali Ewing and son Roy Ewing.

His death comes at a time when the UK government is being criticized for its handling of code 19 issues in care homes. The virus has killed thousands of elderly people in the UK.

Image copyrightANJALI EWING

Image captionHe also danced with Raj Kapoor

Gulshan Ewing had been ill for a week and finally died peacefully on April 18. Her test for code 19 came the day after her death and she was found to be infected with the virus.

"I used to sit with him for hours," said his daughter, Anjali Avon. I took his hand. Talk to them. Talked to him about his family. I told them how much I loved them.

"She was OK. She was not speaking. I played their favorite music. Some old songs. '

Image copyrightANJALI EWING

Image captionHe met Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan several times

When the news of his death came, some of India's leading journalists who had worked with him 35 or 40 years ago began to fondly remember the editor who had given him the job. He said that Gulshan Ewing was very kind hearted and did not consider anyone less than her.

"She was my first editor in my first job," said Charo Shahneh, a journalist with the BBC World Service. He hired me in 1980 after a short interview.

Charu adds, "She was very shy and quiet in those days. She was a well-known person, so I was very nervous when I got the interview call. But they spoke very kindly to me which gave me a lot of peace.

Image copyrightANJALI EWING

Image captionHe taught Danny Kaye how to wear a sari

Charu says Ewing was a great boss and editor with a great personality. "She was very beautiful and always wore the best clothes. She looked very glamorous wearing a chiffon saree and a beaded necklace for a cigarette between her fingers.

Amu Joseph, a journalist who has worked as an assistant editor at Eves Weekly magazine for four years, says:

"We had a small office with a small cabin. But it sounded great because the woman sitting inside was the most different. She was very polite, soft-spoken and had a sophisticated personality.

When Amu Joseph started working for the magazine in 1977, the campaign for women's rights was growing and the campaign against the killing of women for dowry was gradually gaining momentum.

"I was 24 years old and I was burning with feminist ideas," says Amu Joseph.

Most of his journalist friends working in the office had similar views.

Image copyrightANJALI EWING

Image captionShe also met Alfred Hitchcock

But Ewe's Weekly was a traditional women's magazine that published routine articles, such as cooking recipes, fashion and beauty tips, and sewing patterns.

The cover of the magazine featured pictures of young models and film actors always wanting to model.

"I would like to commend Ms. Ewing for her support of modernizing the magazine and for her belief in women's equality," says Amu Joseph. He promoted such ideas.

So new journalists report on topics such as domestic violence and child sexual abuse. The magazine published a special edition on the subject of rape. It also included an article on male domination in Hinduism. All of these articles were revolutionary at the time.

Image copyrightANJALI EWING

Image captionGulshan Ewing had a close friendship with Sunil Dutt and Nargis Dutt

"We have worked for change. We were young and she was in her 50's. They didn't need to listen to us. But they listened to us. '

Pamela Phillips also worked as an assistant editor at Eves Weekly in the 1980s.

"Ewing had the ability to understand that women's voices must be included in changing times," she said.

But he says Ewing himself has never written an article on issues such as equal rights or violence against women. He always 'loved to meet beautiful people.'

She used to hang out with beautiful and successful people but never exaggerated or was proud of it.

Paying homage to Gulshan Ewing, his former colleague Sherna Gandhi, who worked with him, wrote that looking at the recent pictures of Ewing with Hollywood and Bollywood stars, Surprisingly, Ewing never exaggerated that he had connections with such great people.

"I knew my mother was a celebrity, but for me she was just a mother," says Anjali, a journalist herself. She loved her family and cared for her husband and children.

She remembers that when she was growing up, her mother used to bring home a lot of work.

Image copyrightANJALI EWING

Image captionGulshan Ewing with Prince Charles in Mumbai

"For 20 years she was planning for two magazines and commissioning articles, which was a lot of work."

"Film stars used to call him at two in the morning and complain about what they had published about him in their magazines. She would explain to them for an hour.

By the time she retired to London in 1990, Avon had stopped writing and journalism.

Anjali had asked her mother to write a book on her life but she did not show much interest.

That was his life then, and that was his life now. He considered work his own, and his family his.

"I think my mother was a very lucky woman. She had a wonderful career and found a loving husband. It sounds a little weird, but he's got everything in life. '