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Ira Mathur

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Ira Mathur is an Indian-born multimedia Caribbean freelance journalist/broadcaster/documentary producer/anchor who has worked in radio (610, Prime Radio), television (TV6, Government Information Division, CNC3) and print (Trinidad Express[1] and Trinidad Guardian) in Trinidad, West Indies. She has also written for the Gemini News Agency, the Daily Telegraph and the UK Guardian.[2]

Mathur completed her primary secondary and tertiary education in India, Tobago, Canada, and England and holds a liberal arts degree in Literature and Philosophy as well as a Law degree from King's College London through the academy of Tertiary Studies in Trinidad.

She has written over 900 op-eds over almost three decades and has been writing a weekly column since 1995 which currently appears in the Trinidad Guardian.[3]

Early life and Education

Mathur was born in Guwahati, India, to Colonel Mahendra Nath Mathur (b. at Aligarh, 1932), an Indian army officer and Engineer and Anvar Zia Sultana, the daughter of Shahnur Jehan Begum of Savanur.

Ira Mathur and Family at the Taj Mahal

Ira's parents' marriage - with her father being Hindu and mother being Muslim was very unusual in post-Independent India.

As a child, Ira Mathur travelled and lived with her parents and her brother Varun to various army postings across India including Guwahati, Sagar, Chandigarh, Shimla, and Bangalore. She was educated in convents. In Shimla, - Jesus and Mary Convent and in Bangalore, Sacred Hearts Girls High School, as did her sister Rashmi and her mother Zia before them.

Ira's father Mahendra Mathur left the Indian army and emigrated with his family to Tobago in the '70s to build the Claude Noel Highway. After spending a year in Tobago, her parents sent her to boarding school to England when she was 14. She attended Oakdene School, an all-girls school in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire where she completed her secondary education.

At 17, she attended Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada where she obtained a liberal arts degree after which her father enrolled her to study International Journalism at City University.

In 2008 Mathur obtained an LLB from the University of London via the long-distance public funded GATE programme.

Radio

Mathur began her career in Trinidad in 1990 with the state-owned NBS Radio 610.  when she cut her teeth in journalism with her coverage of the coup attempt by the Jamaat Al Muslimeen in 1990 both locally and for the BBC World News.

Mathur was interviewed by former BBC journalist Kate Adie during the attempted coup[4]. At the time of the BBC interview gunmen holding forty hostages at the Red House and the television station in Port of Spain had surrendered, and the hostages were being released. She wrote of that experience in the Trinidad Guardian in August 2010 and on the anniversary of the attempted coup in July 2020.

Freelance Journalist

Mathur freelanced for several years in London where she wrote for the Gemini News Agency, Libas International and Garavi Gujarat and presented for the BBC Caribbean Service, with Hugh Croskill.

As a freelance journalist, Mathur has contributed to The (UK) Guardian (March 1995 - June 1998) with articles such as “Trinidad sends three killers to the gallows” and “VS Naipaul's The Mystic Masseur filming in Trinidad

Many of her columns have also been cited in public life including:

As a freelance journalist for the Government Information Service, Ira produced an award-winning documentary on Domestic Violence in 1997.

Her article 'First comes marriage, then comes love', written for an online magazine was picked up by multiple educational facilities from India to Canada as a cultural teaching tool[5].

Mathur is a frequent contributor to STAN (St. Augustine News & Perspectives) published by the University of the West Indies, notably interviews with Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott What the twilight says – Ira Mathur interviews Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott and best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell The Tipping Point – Malcolm Gladwell at UWI – interview with Ira Mathur. She  was also a contributor to UWIs four day conference in 2020 - LITTCON 2020: The Literature of Trinidad and Tobago, 1980 to 2020.

Trinidad Guardian

In May 1995 Mathur began writing for the Trinidad Guardian with a column on the arrival of her family from India after which she was offered a weekly Sunday column which she continues to write. Mathur is currently the Trinidad Guardian’s longest-running columnist. She has written over nine hundred columns on politics, economics, social, health and developmental issues, locally, regionally and internationally. These include interviews with three Prime Ministers:

She has also done in-depth interviews with Trinidad and Tobago's Police commissioners – Dr Dwayne Gibbs (March 2012); and Gary Griffith (July 2020).

Television

Ira Mathur Cleaning up the Mess with CNC3

Mathur joined CCN TV6 as an anchor, documentary producer and news presenter in 1991. While there, she produced and presented the weekday programme Morning Edition for a year. Between 1991 and 1994  she produced several documentaries and special reports of note on regional figures including Sir Ellis Clarke former President and architect of the constitution of Trinidad and Tobago - Sir Ellis Clarke Documentary (1993); former Prime Minister and President of Trinidad and Tobago, ANR Robinson - Portrait of a President; and Sir Derek Walcott, the St Lucian Nobel Laureate who considered Trinidad his second home -  Special Report - Conversations: Walcott & Pantin.

In 2010 Mathur produced and presented a two part multimedia series for Guardian Media[6] CNC3 Television. The first series of 21 episodes titled Cleaning up the Mess focused on environmental issues in Trinidad and Tobago. The second was a six part series on Natural Disaster Preparedness in Trinidad and Tobago.

During her time at TV6 Mathur also presented a radio programme on classical Urdu and Hindi Ghazals called Raag Maalika on Prime 106.

Creative writing

Mathur has recently begun a parallel career as a creative writer. She was longlisted for the 2019 Johnson and Amoy Achong Caribbean Writers Prize, and the 2018 second prize winner of the Caribbean based Small Axe Literary Competition for short fiction with Poui before Rain[7]

An excerpt from her creative memoir, en route to publication, is anthologised in Thicker Than Water, Peekash Press, 2018.

Personal life

Ira Mathur is married to Imshah Mohammed, an Engineer who studied at Manchester University. She has two children, Kiran Mathur Mohammed, a banker and joint CEO of Medl; and Anika Mathur Mohammed, a lawyer, based in London. She had one older brother, Varun Mathur, an Engineer who died of colon cancer, and has a younger sister Rashmi Mathur who lives in Trinidad where she works as an Optometrist.

Awards

1996

Media Excellence Awards Royal Bank/ Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago - Best Commentary (Print)

1997

Media Excellence Awards Royal Bank/ Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago - Best Current Affairs feature (Television)

Winner of the Best Feature / Documentary in the UNICEF Award Category

1998

PAHO/WHO Media Awards - Excellence in Health Journalism

Winner of the Best Feature Article in the Newspaper Category

1999

PAHO/WHO Media Awards - Excellence in Health Journalism

Media Excellence Awards Royal Bank/ Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago - Best Commentary (Print)

2000

PAHO/WHO Media Awards – Excellence in Health Journalism

Winner: UNICEF - Children's Rights in the Special Awards Category

2018

Second prize winner of the Caribbean based Small Axe Literary Competition for short fiction[8].

References

  1. ^ Morley, Jefferson (2004) "India's Divisions Block Gandhi's Bid for Power", Washington Post, May 18, 2004, retrieved 2010-08-29
  2. ^ "Trinidad sends three killers to the gallows". the Guardian. 1999-06-05. Retrieved 2020-12-01.
  3. ^ "Ira Mathur column archive", Trinidad & Tobago Guardian, retrieved 2010-08-29
  4. ^ Whitehorne, Pat (anchor); Mathur, Ira (correspondent); Adie, Kate (correspondent); Crosskill, Hugh (correspondent); Madeira, Laura Lee (interviewee); Basdeo, Sahadeo (interviewee); Pantin, Dennis (interviewee) (1990-08-01). "Caribbean Report 01-08-1990". {{cite journal}}: |last2= has generic name (help); Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. ^ "First comes marriage then comes love (preview)". www.coursehero.com. Retrieved 2020-12-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. ^ "Local business must live up to European standard". www.guardian.co.tt. Retrieved 2020-12-01.
  7. ^ "Project MUSE". muse.jhu.edu. Retrieved 2020-12-01.
  8. ^ "submissions + eligibility | Small Axe Project". smallaxe.net. Retrieved 2020-12-01.