Jaideep Bose

Ours began as a phone bromance. I had just become editor of The Economic Times in Calcutta; Arindam was coordinating editor for the paper, based in Delhi. I was in my twenties, he was almost a decade older. Within weeks, though, we'd struck up an easy friendship without having ever met. We would be on the phone - this was pre-mobile - several times a day; he was unfailingly upbeat and can-do in his attitude towards life and work. At the time, ET had editions in only four cities.