In Loving Memory
Honoring the Life of Ravish Tiwari
A respectful space to remember, reflect, and celebrate a life that continues to inspire family, friends, and all who knew him.
About
A Place for Remembrance
Early life and Education: Ravish Tiwari was born in the Imilia village in Deoria District, Uttar Pradesh, India on 2 September 1981. He attended Khalilabad in the Basti District (now the Sant Kabir Nagar District) for primary school.
After Class 5, he joined the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, also in Basti, and finished in 1998. He qualified for the Joint Entrance Examination in 2000 and attended IIT Bombay for a five-year dual degree in Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science.
In 2005, he was selected as a Rhodes Scholar along with five other Indians. He later pursued a Master’s degree at the University of Oxford in Comparative Social Policy.
CAREER: After returning from Oxford in 2006, Tiwari joined The Indian Express as the principal correspondent. He spent eight years at the publication and also filled the roles of special correspondent, assistant editor, and senior assistant editor during his tenure. His team covered Union Government issues including elections, national security, strategic affairs, diplomacy, public health, education, rural affairs, agriculture, and infrastructure. He joined India Today as associate editor in 2014, then The Economic Times as senior assistant editor in 2015. He returned to The Indian Express in June 2017 as chief of the national bureau, a role he held until his death.
Words of Tribute
Messages of remembrance that reflect love, gratitude, and the lasting presence of Ravish Tiwari.
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Memories from IIT Batchmates..
Ravish Kumar Tiwari (a.k.a. Tiwari/Bihari) took his last breath on 19th Feb, 2022 after battling cancer for 18 months. Ravish grew up in Deoria, a small city in eastern Uttar Pradesh, where he studied at the government’s Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya. He graduated from IIT Bombay in 2005 with B.Tech and M.Tech in Metallurgical Engineering & Material Sciences.
His brother fondly remembers that as a kid Ravish wanted to become PM of India, and in school he had made plans to achieve that position in 2028. Even at IIT, his friends knew him with the same ambition, and often found Ravish hostel lounge devouring one newspaper after another. His passion for questions that go to the heart of politics and society made him switch to social sciences. He went to Oxford University in 2005-06 as one of the six Rhodes Scholars that year; his field was social justice in education.
“Meet Ravish Tiwari. He has come from Rhodes to roads.” This introduction made him smile — the glint in his eyes unmistakable. An IITian who went to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar, he would literally be on Delhi’s roads most of the day, walking and driving from one ministry building or party office to another, meeting politicians and policymakers.
Ravish loved politicians, every aspect of them — their ideological commitments (both in public and private), rhetoric, bombast, ambitions, jealousy, conspiracies, et al. He enjoyed it because he was never judgmental. He just loved the art (and science) of politics and reported it irreverently. Tiwari had the opportunity like many of us to setup companies and become multi-millionaires. He was proud of his friends who had chosen to do it but he took no less pride in what he had chosen to become — a pavement-thumping journalist.
He made a name for himself for his brilliant grasp of politics and policies, a wide network of sources across sectors and, above all, his objectivity and fearlessness. In a media ecosystem where self-promotion is almost a credo, Tiwari let his stories do the talking. Ravish Tiwari was a brilliant journalist, but still better as an individual, someone who found virtue in everyone and spoke ill about none.
The immense respect he gained for his objective, irreverent journalism got reflected in the form of tributes and condolences. They poured in from people across ideological and political spectrums — from President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to Congress leader Jairam Ramesh and Aam Aadmi Party’s Atishi, among many others.
“Politics was something he was deeply passionate about. It was on the top of his mind even when his dealing with subjects that were not even remotely connected to the world of politics,” Prof Ajit Kulkarni recalls. “We used to have long conversations. In my career till then, I was yet to come across a student so certain about what he wants to do. I believe by politics he essentially meant that he wants to ultimately bring certain changes in the society, administration and governance. “For him, journalism provided a window to that world.”
Prof N B Ballal, now retired, remembers Tiwari’s remarkable sense of purpose. “He often spoke to me about his wish to bring some transformative changes in the political and administrative system. That is where the idea of becoming a journalist germinated in his mind. He used to say, ‘that is where I can start making some difference to the society’,” Prof Ballal said.
We from the Techfest team, came to know this gem of a person when he Managed Infrastructure in 2003. His colleagues, batchmates and friends describe him as “A person who’d make your problems his own, and be there for you any time of the day”.
Ravish was a true star, and stars don’t just shine, they burn. Junior, mentee, and close friend Nitin Saluja (IITB 07, Founder-Chayoos) sums it up best: “Bhai hamara Stud tha, ye to pata tha, Wo Legend tha, ye nahin pata tha”
Memories we can’t Forget..
