By Veturi Srivatsa, former Secretary,  SJFI

Photo: Kewal Kaushik. Photo credit: SJFI

NEW DELHI, November 25, 2025 — Too soft and gentle for a footballer, not given to much emotion or theatrics! As a football writer, he never got swayed, his likes and dislikes never manifested in his reporting.  Kewal Kaushik, 98, the last of The Times of India giants of the vintage era has gone after living a full life. He passed away on Monday, November 24, 2025.

When I was transferred to Delhi from Ahmedabad in mid-70s, the Sports Department, headed by that irrepressible newsman, R. Sriman — two-time Vice-President in ASPU from 1978) — after K.N. Prabhu was shifted to Bombay as National Sports Editor, had maverick Swarn Kumar Mehra, all-rounder Kishan Datta, tennis-badminton specialist Mohan Lal Kaul and Kewal Kaushik. I joined when another brilliant writer Raghunath Rau quit to join The Statesman. Always smiling, he was so soft-spoken, hardly audible. He was perhaps the only journalist, I can think of, who has never used a cuss word.

When the the Delhi Gate stadium was acutely divided between Bengal and Punjab teams, his understanding of the game put things in the right perspective. Not for him the frills and thrills, he made the game so simple without complicating. Like the man, his writing too was simple. A personal experience with Kewal best illustrates his persona. Two days before my wedding I was on the evening shift and Kewal was covering the 1978 national football Championship in Srinagar. On the day of the final, the communication lines were down and he called me to dictate his report. After a couple of paragraphs, he said add more details from agency reports. “Sri, kal teri shaadi hai, add a couple of agency paragraphs and chutti kar yaar” (Tomorrow is your wedding day, just add a couple of paragraphs from agency details to my report and go home). I insisted on taking the full report on phone, saying readers would like to know what he has to say on the game. I took down the entire repot and that was the lead Sports story next day. In any case Kewal never wrote a report more than 350 words! Many wondered how he could analyse a 90-minute game in such a short report when others needed double the word count to describe a match!

Kewal had played a good grade of football. He was the member of the Delhi team that won the national chamiponship for the Santosh Trophy the only time in 1944-45. He played for one of Delhi’s top clubs, New Delhi Heroes. Within months, he and Kishan Datta have left, and both lived into their 90s, and the secret of their longevity is they both were regular joggers. A family man, Kewal lost his journalist son Suresh Kaushik not long ago.  As veteran journalist Tarun Basu, who was part of the good old Press Box with Kewal, put it, anyone who came in contact with him will always remember his genial and smiling visage. His daughter Sunita has the last word: He was the best Daddy in the world!