At a time when Marshal MacLuhan was talking about the global village, when. Rolling Stone began publishing in America, Melody Maker started coming out in England and Time-Out happened in London, in Calcutta there was JS
This was the coming of age of Indian youth, a joining of hands across many oceans, an anthem of the young all over the world wanting to be heard. Dubby Bhagat recounts here the rise and fall of JS.
JS,or Junior Statesman, as it was first called, was the brainchild of Evan J Charlton, the last British editor of The Statesman. Charlton's idea was to catch the readers early by inculcating brand loyalty towards The Statesman at a young age. For this he needed a youth magazine and to start it, he got hold of another Britisher—Desmond Doig.
At that time, Desmond was doing a number of things. He was a roving reporter. He was on a freewheeling assignment through India doing what he wanted. He used to head towards Nepal quite often. He was with Sir Edmund Hillary on the famous yeti-hunting expedition of 1960-61. And around the time JS was being thought of, he was doing a book of sketches on Calcutta