One of the leading female journalists of the country, Vimla Patil passed away at the age of 91 on 30th September. She was the first editor of Femina; a Times of India publication since its inaugural edition in 1959 and served till 1993.
After completing her education in journalism from London, Vimla Patil was a part-time trainee for The Telegraph. Before joining Femina, she also worked for a business journal, The Office Magazine. When Femina initiated the Miss India shows and the rights to choose Indian candidates for Miss Universe, Miss World, and other titles; Vimla Patil described the role the beauty pageant and the magazine had to play in the creation of national identity: "When India became independent, there were, because of various states in India, different kinds of women. There was a Maharashtrian woman, and there was a Punjabi woman, but nobody had identified what was an Indian woman. There was a question mark there. Who is the Indian woman? Nobody knew. Who was going to put all these threads together and make one fabric? That was the question. And the answer to that was Femina and Miss India.”
Apart from being a journalist, she was an author, columnist, and activist. Her book ‘How to Be…. Successful and Happy’ is a series of lectures on Arjun, one of the central figures of the Mahabharata. Vimla Patil also edited a book, 'Fabulous Thali Meals by Chetana'. She used to write a regular column "Eavesdropping" for New Woman Magazine on social issues.
Her demise has been an unparalleled loss to the Indian journalism fraternity.
