https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Behram_ContractorBehram Contractor - Revision history2026-07-29T18:22:36ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=Behram_Contractor&diff=167229&oldid=previmported>Kailash29792 at 08:53, 29 June 20212021-06-29T08:53:49Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}<br />
{{Use Indian English|date=October 2018}}<br />
'''Behram Contractor''' (1930 – 9 April 2001), also known as '''[https://web.archive.org/web/20040405133127/http://www.busybeeforever.com/about.asp Busybee]''', was an Indian journalist, humorist and the founder-editor of the newspaper ''The Afternoon Despatch & Courier'', that was published between 1985 and 2019 from the city of Bombay/Mumbai.<br />
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==Humorist==<br />
A tribute paid to him online says: "In the history of Indian journalism, there will never be another humorist like Busybee; he was the [[Art Buchwald]] of India, the [[P. G. Wodehouse|P.G. Wodehouse]] of our times and more, a writer with a brilliant sense of timing for satire and humour, but with a soft and sensitive pen. And with a flow of words that could have readers rolling in their living rooms, offices and suburban trains on their way home; or moist-eyed with emotion and sepia-tinged nostalgia. That was Busybee." ([https://web.archive.org/web/20040405133127/http://www.busybeeforever.com/about.asp About Busybee])<br />
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==Career==<br />
A prolific and popular writer, Contractor worked at ''[[The Free Press Journal]]'', ''[[The Times of India]]'' ([[Bombay]]), and ''[[Mid-Day]]'' before founding his own newspaper ''[[google:The+Afternoon+Despatch+and+Courier&oq=The+Afternoon+Despatch+and+Courier&aqs=chrome..69i57.1359j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8|The Afternoon Despatch and Courier]]'' (better known as ''[[The Afternoon (newspaper)|Afternoon]]'') in 1985.<br />
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==Column, as ''Busybee''==<br />
Contractor continued to write articles for the ''Times of India'' and the ''Midday'' under the [[pen name]] ''Busybee'' even while serving as editor of his own paper, and wrote the column ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20040404125337/http://www.busybeeforever.com/round.asp Round and About]''.<br />
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==Food writer==<br />
Contractor also wrote the series "Eating Out," which featured one of the best Mumbai restaurants, giving a glimpse of many Indian and international cuisines. Described as "the first food writer of the country," Contractor also served as the editor of [http://www.uppercrustindia.com/posts/455/Busybee-.html UpperCrust], a publication that honored him with 50 quotations.<br />
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==Awards, etc==<br />
He was awarded the [[Padma Shri]] in 1990,<ref name="Padma Awards">{{cite web |url=http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf |title=Padma Awards |publisher=Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India |date=2015 |access-date=21 July 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6U68ulwpb?url=http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf |archive-date=15 November 2014 }}</ref> and the Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism in 1996.<br />
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==Book==<br />
In 1998, Contractor published ''From Bombay to Mumbai'', a collection of the best of Busybee's columns from 1996 and 1997.<br />
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==Personal life==<br />
In 1985, the "almost confirmed bachelor", as his wife-to-be described him later, married Farzana Contractor, also a journalist.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Farzana Contractor|first=Busybee|title=The newspaper that Behram Contractor aka Busybee started has closed down. His writings remain alive|url=https://scroll.in/article/931164/the-newspaper-that-behram-contractor-aka-busybee-started-has-closed-down-his-writings-remain-alive|access-date=2020-07-04|website=Scroll.in|language=en-US}}</ref> <br />
Behram Contractor died in 2001 from a [[myocardial infarction|heart attack]].<br />
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==''Afternoon Despatch & Courier''==<br />
Writing about the newspaper he founded in 1985, his wife Farzana Contractor has commented that she "was among the three reasons that prompted the famous Behram Contractor to launch [The] ''Afternoon''.<ref name="Mirror">text of the citation</ref>{{Cite web|last=Jul 20|first=Mumbai Mirror / Updated|last2=2019|last3=Ist|first3=06:00|title=Sun sets on Afternoon|url=https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/opinion/columnists/by-invitation/sun-sets-on-afternoon/articleshow/70301075.cms|access-date=2020-07-04|website=Mumbai Mirror|language=en}}</ref> She recalled the early days of the launch as being tough times.<br />
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The paper proprietor [[Kamal Morarka]] when it was shut.<ref name="Mirror" /><br />
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== References ==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
* {{cite news | url=https://www.tribuneindia.com/2001/20010421/windows/above.htm | title=Busybee Behram (obituary) | date=21 April 2001 | newspaper=The Tribune | location=India | access-date=8 October 2018 }}<br />
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{{Authority control}}<br />
{{Padma Shri Award Recipients in Literature & Education}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Contractor, Behram}}<br />
[[Category:1930 births]]<br />
[[Category:2001 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:Recipients of the Padma Shri in literature & education]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century Indian journalists]]<br />
[[Category:Indian newspaper editors|Chalapati]]<br />
[[Category:Indian male journalists]]<br />
[[Category:The Times of India journalists]]<br />
[[Category:Indian food writers]]<br />
[[Category:Journalists from Maharashtra]]<br />
[[Category:Writers from Mumbai]]</div>imported>Kailash29792