Three months shy of completing 50 years as a journalist, Mumbai-based Dr Sukrit Khandekar who is editor of the Marathi newspaper Prahar, continues to be a diligent student and pursuer of the subject that shaped his career. Having acquired a Masters degree in journalism in 2008, nearly 33 years after he graduated in the same, he was recently awarded a PhD from the Department of Mass Communication from Pune’s Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth.

The inspiration, the 71-year-old admits, came from his contemporary, Dr Bharat Kumar Raut. The veteran journalist like Khandekar, did his PhD on the Bhagavad Gita. He was later egged on by his classmate Deepak Tilak, the vice chancellor of Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth. It was, however, the research subject that took even him by surprise. Having worked for leading dailies in Maharashtra, in senior editorial roles, including Kesari, Loksatta, Navshakti, The Maharashtra Times, and Lokmat, Khandekar decided to veer off course, focusing his research on the Shiv Sena mouthpiece, Saamana.