Of course, if and when Rajan Narayan does launch his weekly, he will be infinitely better placed than the Patrao, A.C. Fernandes was in the monsoon 1983. Let's wish him luck! Chapter 7: The banyan tree: working under Rajan Frederick NoronhaFrederick Noronha was part of the original batch of trainees with the Herald during its re-launch in 1983. In 1987, he became Goa correspondent for the Deccan Herald. Since 1995, he has been a full-time freelance journalist, writing mainly for the outstation media, including the Indo-Asian News Service. He has an active presence on the Internet, and has been for journalism training to Germany and Sweden. He is founder of the Goajourno, India-EJ and ThirdWorld-EJ mailing lists, that seek to build collaborative networks among journalists. Reports or features critical of large companies are to be avoided by and large. No report on a corporate situation, however much it may be considered in the public interest, shall be sent to the press without prior clearance from the editor. We cannot afford to antagonise potential advertisers. -- Editorial guidelines, from Rajan Narayan, May 3, 1984. Denying journalists the right to express his or her views is like denying oxygen to a human being. -- Stray Thoughts, by Rajan Narayan, September 2003, www.rajannarayan.com AN ACTIVIST friend argues vehemently that this editor single-handedly opens up space more than any other in Goa. Some staff who worked under him have a sneering you-don't-know-the-inside-story attitude. Others credit the man with making them what they are. For the average Goan Catholic, Rajan Narayan is virtually a hero in real life, if not the newspaper equivalent of a patron saint. Undeniably, this is the man who has shaped Goan journalism for at least two decades, and has big plans for more. Any venture to understand the contemporary media in this small state would be incomplete without a chapter on Rajan Narayan, who at the time of writing (end-September 2003) has just announced his decision to resign from the Herald. This writer epitomises the love-hate relationship many a journalist in Goa would share with someone who suddenly descended on the Goan scene sometime in 1983. Someone who has critically shaped the understanding of Goa, including how we see ourselves and what are the issues we define as important.