New Zealand-adopted Fiji journalist, sports writer, national news agency reporter, anti-coup activist, media freedom advocate, storyteller and mentor Sri Krishnamurthi has died. He was just two weeks shy of his 60th birthday.

Fiji-born on 15 August 1963, just after his elder twin brother Murali, Sri grew up in the port city of Lautoka, Fiji’s second largest in the west of Viti Levu island. His family were originally Girmitya, indentured Indian plantation workers shipped out to Fiji under under harsh conditions by the British colonial rulers.

“My grandmother, Bonamma, came from India with my grandfather and came to work in the sugar cane fields under the indentured system,” Sri recalled in a recent RNZ interview with Blessen Tom.

“They lived in ‘lines’ — a row of one-room houses. They worked the cane fields from 6am to 6pm largely without a break. It was basically slavery in all but name.”

However, the Krishnamurthi family became one of the driving forces in building up Fiji’s largest NGO, TISI Sangam.

He made his initial mark as a journalist with The Fiji Times, Fiji’s most influential daily newspaper. However, along with many of his peers, he became disillusioned and affected with the trauma and displacement as a result of Sitiveni Rabuka’s two military coups in 1987 at the start of what became known as the country’s devastating “coup culture”.

Sri migrated to New Zealand to make a new life, as did most of his family members, and he was active for the Coalition for Democracy (CDF) in the post-coup years. He worked as a journalist for many organisations, including the NZ Press Association, the civil service, Parliament and more recently with RNZ Pacific.

Tana’s ‘sleepless nights’
His last story for RNZ Pacific was about Tana Umaga ”expecting sleepless nights” as the new coach of Moana Pasifika.

“A friend to many, he is best known in the journalism industry for his long-time stint at NZPA covering sport, and more recently for his work with the Pacific Media Centre,” said New Zealand Herald editor-at-large Shayne Currie in his Media Insider column.

“During his NZPA career, he covered various international rugby tours of New Zealand, America’s Cups, cricket tours, the Warriors in the NRL and was also among a handful of reporters who travelled to Mexico in 1999 for the All Whites’ first-ever appearance at Fifa’s Confederations Cup.”

His mates remember him as a generous friend and dedicated journalist.

“He enjoyed being a New Zealander, a true Kiwi if we can call someone that,” recalled Nik Naidu, an activist businessman, former journalist and trustee of the Whanau Community Centre and Hub, when speaking about his lifelong family friend at the funeral on Friday.

“Sri was one of the few Fijians and migrants over 30 years ago who embraced Māoridom and the first nation people of our land. It is only now in New Zealand that the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi is becoming better understood by the mainstream.

“Sri lived Te Tiriti all those years ago, and advocated for Māori and indigenous rights for so long.”

Postgraduate studies
I first got to know Sri in 2017 when he rolled up at AUT University and said he wanted to study journalism. I was floored by this idea. Although I hadn’t really known him personally before this, I knew him by reputation as being a talented sports journalist from Fiji who had made his mark at NZPA.

I remember asking Sri why did he want to do journalism — albeit at postgraduate level — when he could easily teach the course standing on his head. And then as we chatted I realised that he was rebuilding his life after a stroke that he had suffered travelling from Chennai to Bangalore, India, back in 2016.

Well, I persuaded him to branch out in his planned Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Studies and tackle a range of challenging new skills and knowledge, such as digital media. And I was honoured too that he wanted to take my Asia Pacific Journalism studies postgraduate course.

He wanted to build on his Fiji origins and expand his Pacific reporting skills, and he mentored many of his fellow postgraduates, people with life experience and qualifications but often new to journalism, especially Pacific journalism.

I realised he was somebody rather special who had a remarkable range of skills and an extraordinary range of contacts, even for a journalist. He seemed to know everybody under the sun. And he had a friendly manner and an insatiable curiosity.

From then he gravitated around Asia Pacific Journalism and the Pacific Media Centre. Next thing he was recruited as editor/writer of Pacific Media Watch, a media freedom project that we had been running in the centre since 2007 in collaboration with the Paris-based global watchdog Reporters Without Borders.

In spite of his post-stroke blues, he was one of the best project editors that we ever had. He had a tremendous zeal and enthusiasm no matter what handicap was in his way. He was willing to try anything — so keen to give it a go.

95bFM radio presenter
Sri became the presenter of our weekly Pacific radio programme Southern Cross on 95bFM, not an easy task with his voice issues, but he gained a popular following. He interviewed people from all around the Pacific.

Next challenge was when we sent him to the University of the South Pacific to join the journalism school team over there covering the 2018 Fiji General Election. We had hoped 2006 coup leader Voreqe Bainimarama would be ousted then, but he wasn’t – that came four years later last December.

However, Sri scored an exclusive interview with the original coup leader, Sitiveni Rabuka, the man responsible for Sri fleeing Fiji and who is now Prime Minister of Fiji. Sri got the repentent former Fiji strongman to admit that he was “coerced” by the defeated Alliance party into carrying out the first coup.

He graduated from AUT with a Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Studies (Digital Media) in 2019 to add to his earlier MBA at Massey University. Several times he expressed to me that his ambition was to gain a PhD and join the USP journalism programme to mentor future Fiji journalists.

At AUT, he won the 2018 RNZ Pacific Prize for his Fiji coup coverage and in 2019 he was awarded the Storyboard Award for his outstanding contribution to diversity journalism. RNZ Pacific manager Moera Tuilaepa-Taylor tells a story about how he had declared to her at the time:  “I’m going to work for RNZ Pacific.” And he did.

However, the following year, our world changed forever with the COVID-19 pandemic and many plans crashed. Sri and I teamed up again, this time on a Pacific Covid and Climate crisis project, writing for Asia Pacific Report.  He recalled about this venture: “The fact that we kept the Pacific Media Watch project going when other news media around us — such as Bauer — were failing showed a tenacity that was unique and a true commitment to the Pacific.”

‘Virtual kava bar’
It was a privilege to work with Sri and to share his enthusiasm and friendship. He was an extraordinarily generous person, especially to fellow journalists. I was really touched when he and Blessen Tom, now also with RNZ, made a video dedicated to the Pacific Media Watch and my work.

Nik Naidu shares a tale of Sri’s generosity with a group of West Papuan students last year when their Indonesian government suddenly pulled their scholarships and left them in dire straits. AUT postgraduate communications Laurens Ikinia was their advocate, trying to get their visas extended and fundraising for them to complete their studies.

“Many people don’t know this, but Lauren’s rent was late by a year — more than $3000 — and Sri organised money and paid for this. That was Sri, deep down the kindest of souls.”

During his Pacific Media Watch stint, Sri wrote several generous profiles of regional colleagues, including The Pacific Newsroom, the “virtual kava bar” news success founded by Pacific media veterans Sue Ahearn and Michael Field, and also of the expanding RNZ Pacific newsroom team with Koroi Hawkins appointed as the first Melanesian news editor.

But he struggled at times with depression and his journalism piece that really stands out for me is an article that he wrote about living with a stroke for three years. It was scary but inspirational and it took huge courage to write. As he wrote at the time:

“You learn new tricks when you have a stroke – words associated with images, or words through the process of elimination worked for me. And then there was the trusted old Google when you couldn’t be bothered.

“You learn to use bungee shoelaces or Velcro shoes because tying shoelaces just won’t happen. The right arm is bung and you are back to typing with two fingers – as I’m doing now. At the same time, technology is your biggest ally.”

Sri Krishnamurthi died last week on August 2 — way too early. He was a great survivor against the odds. Moce, Sri, your friends and colleagues will fondly remember your generous spirit and legacy.

Dr David Robie is a retired journalism professor and founding director of the AUT Pacific Media Centre. He worked with Sri Krishnamurthi for six years as an academic mentor, friend and journalism colleague. This was article is published under a community partnership with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Sri Krishnamurthi reflects in this special report on what life is really like trying to live and cope with the effects of a stroke for three years.

Those were the most horrifying days of my life. It’s only now that I find the courage to write about my trials and tribulations.

November 2, 2016, travelling from Chennai to Bangalore, India, in the evening, that was when I suffered a stroke. There aren’t any happy memories of that day and subsequent days, weeks and months.

I have never owned the stroke, by calling it MY stroke … and never will. It was just an unfortunate set of circumstances that led to it. Like being a type 2 diabetic, having high blood pressure – not really understanding that your blood pressure (BP) should be 120  systolic/over 80 diastolic.

I would urge everyone, young and old, to get your BP checked at your nearest pharmacy.

At first my brother and mum thought I had a “hypo” (low on sugar) being a diabetic and soon they realised it wasn’t!

Many have since asked me to describe what it felt like to have a stroke. For me, it was terrifying – I couldn’t speak without slurring, the arm gave way, the right side of my face fell away, all of this followed a distinct humming sound in my ear before I felt my body tighten in a vice-like cramp. (The experience isn’t the same for all us)

Not knowing your own mind is very confusing … they say we lose 2 million brain cells or neurons every minute … but, what I know is that when the brain has a constricted blood flow to it, every part of you dies.

Ischemic stroke
I had an Ischemic stroke, that occurs when the arteries to your brain become narrowed or blocked, causing severely reduced blood flow (ischemia). The most common ischemic strokes include: Thrombotic stroke. A thrombotic stroke occurs when a blood clot (thrombus) forms in one of the arteries that supply blood to your brain. (Definition thanks to Google). It affects the right side of your body.

There is no such thing as a “mild” stroke, a stroke is a stoke – the degree of debilitation is devastating for sufferers of a stroke. There are no words to describe it.

The worst aspect of the condition is your brain doesn’t know whether you are Arthur or Martha, which day of the week it is and simple actions like counting backwards from 10 cannot be comprehended.

It is feeling of complete disorientation and helplessness. You are fatigued very quickly, your emotions are very raw and surface quickly, tears aren’t very far away … and the frustration of being half the man you once were wells up into utter depression.

Then there is the loneliness that creeps in on you, barring a handful of your very best friends … the rest choose to become acquaintances on social media … they have lives and families that MUST and SHOULD come first.

I must pay tribute to my mum, brothers, sister and my dear brother-in-law for doing all they could to ease me back into the world of the living.

And, give credit where it belongs, I’ve been married twice – both times unsuccessfully – and my partner for over 12 years no longer wants anything to do with me. But there is my platonic flatmate, a beautiful soul and a friend for more than 20 years who took me out of “Homestay”- a hostel in Manukau that I moved into within a month of returning from India and I am eternally grateful to her for being there.

Homestay cooking
Homestay is where I cooked my first meal – pasta, having had cooking as part of my rehabilitation.

The first dish that I cooked to prove I could live and operate independently was a dish of prawns at my sister’s home where I stayed for a month while trying to decipher who I was.

Then there was social welfare, I am grateful to WINZ for being there, but there are many faults in the system. The first time I turned up, without any forms filled. How do you manually fill in forms when your writing hand doesn’t work?…And your case worker looks at you with disdain…There can few more humiliating instances for the disabled.

I was sent away with the forms to fill – and that is one of many failings for the disabled that WINZ can and should help with because, after struggling with them I managed with great difficulty to fill them in anyway. One way that WINZ can help the disabled is to hire people to help you or the uneducated to fill out forms.

I can openly say WINZ workers are the most abused and over-worked public servants and to their credit they never complain and are not given due recognition for the work they do. However, they are as caring and compassionate as the system allows them to be.

A broken body and mind, but not a shattered spirit. From walking with a crutch to the sheer joy of walking unaided to the point of being told off by a very angry woman for using the disabled toilet at a restaurant.

“You’re not disabled,” I recall her shrieking to me. I replied, “doesn’t a stroke count?” She said, in a disbelieving and accusatory tone, “Well, you don’t look it….” Her voice trailed.

Grateful thoughts
I guess I should be grateful for small thoughts like hers to think me able bodied. In a bizarre way, we feel entitled to use the disabled toilets – but not for a tryst, a la All Black Aaron Smith!

My first attempt at HOBBLING.

What was I going to do for a living? The only industry I knew was the media, and I had get my brain working … words that previously flowed in torrents had slowed to a trickle, often those words were there but pulling them out was a near impossibility.

You learn new tricks when you have a stroke – words associated with images, or words through the process of elimination worked for me. And then there was the trusted old Google when you couldn’t be bothered.

You learn to use bungee shoelaces or Velcro shoes because tying shoelaces just won’t happen. The right arm is bung and you are back to typing with two fingers – as I’m doing now. At the same time, technology is your biggest ally.

As is Vibra-Train, a unique training system that is great for circulation and building up wasted muscle structure. It has a studio in Auckland that is free for the disabled, for cerebral palsy (CP) and stroke survivors alike. And the genius behind it all is Lloyd Shaw who has built his own machines.

Then there is social media which gets your brain working as you post up your pictures and little quips following others, or commenting. And curating content can be very cathartic in your rehabilitation. You have to learn how to deal with trolls … or just mean and nasty vindictive people.

‘Done on computers’
I made a very conscious and curious decision to return to university and do a Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Studies at Auckland University of Technology (AUT). I distinctly remember talking to a senior lecturer, Gudrun Frommerhz: “But I can’t take notes because my writing sucks”.

She replied, encouragingly: “You don’t have to write, everything you do is done on computers.”

However, the self doubt creeps in like a nagging negative presence: “Can I manage to do this?”

Apprehensive at AUT, not knowing whether I could handle studies, April 2017

In July 2017, I began my two-year sojourn at AUT doing the postgraduate diploma … and so began my journey towards a normal and somewhat full life.

So, when people and acquaintances ask me these days, “how are you doing?” my reply is always: “As good as I can be”.

The two wonderful years at university is another story – for another day.

Sri Krishnamurthi graduated with a Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Studies (Digital Media) in 2019. He has been a special projects writer for the Pacific Media Centre since he joined AUT and is this year the PMC Pacific Media Watch freedom project contributing editor. Before his stroke, he had a career in sports journalism for the NZ Press Association and in communication management roles, and gained an MBA (Massey University). The article was first published on Sri’s personal blog and is republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz