Back then, we had a yen for creative headlines

The two stalwarts of Khaleej Times were the owners, Abdul Rahim Galadari and Abdul Latif. The first loved his paper with expressive passion and it was the jewel in the crown of his empire. The latter was more relaxed but a stickler for perfection and always ready to try something new. Both were trusting and left you to do your job, but were not easy if you erred. This paper was their pride and if they let you play with it you made sure you put it safely to bed every night.

Like you would a child. They had given it to you for safekeeping and you better not hurt it. Our MD was Qasim Mohammed, a tough but fair-minded man who was a good leader and stood by you when the chips were down. I had been the Editor for a few months when one morning as I entered the office I could feel the high-wire tension even among the operators (KT operators are the first to know everything and a fount of information). I was told the MD wanted to see me. At once. You have to remember if you were driving to work there was no contact possible. No mobile phones. So I knocked and went in, and Q, as we referred to him, was looking hugely serious.

We have been summoned to the head office, he said, the bosses are very upset, what have you done? I shrugged, since I had no idea what was wrong and no one was telling me. On the contrary, the morning assessment of the paper that all editors engage in to ensure nothing went south was pretty neat and I saw nothing untoward.

Anyway, submerged in ignorance the MD and his Editor (little me) got into his car and we drove (no driver) to the InterContinental Hotel where the Galadari offices were situated. I remember Q saying we will handle it, stop looking so gloomy, but I was pretty stressed by the time we reached the I’con.

Naturally, the elevator took yonks to come and we were at the door of the sanctum sanctorum. It is a long corridor and everyone in their offices looked away, which did not bode well. You could feel things were baaa-aaad. We entered and both the brothers looked very serious. The silence was killing. The Khaleej

Times edition was on the desk and had a big red circle around part of the front page.

Abdul Rahim said, have you seen this error, how could it happen, on the front page.

For the life of me I could not recall a single error in my mind. It seems some VIP had called and complained about our issue.

Who gave this headline, the boss asked, pointing to the red circle. I did, I said, it’s a great headline. But it is the wrong currency. The headline I had given was: China has a yen for Japanese goods. The complainant had called and said the Chinese currency was yuan not yen and KT had goofed up.

I laughed out with relief. Yen means desire, it’s a rare English word, I explained, meaning you want something and it is a play on the word, it’s a super headline, I love it.

Both the bosses broke into warm smiles and Abdul Rahim ordered tea and biscuits and immediately called the person who had complained, and ribbed him mercilessly about the yen and yuan and desire and how KT does not make mistakes. That guy got it solid for at least 15 minutes. It was a harrowing morning but it ended well. We never found out who the VIP was but Q knew, I suspect and wasn’t saying.

On the way back Q said to me: they like you and they trust you with their paper, don’t ever let them down. That’s why 25 years later, it is still my paper. — Bikram Vohra is former Editor of Khaleej Times