Behram Contractor (1930 – 9 April 2001), popularly known as Busybee, was a Parsi journalist, humorist, and the founding editor of The Afternoon Despatch & Courier, a weekly that was published in Bombay/Mumbai between 1985 and 2019.

Humorist

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 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."
About Busybee

Career

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 '' The Afternoon Despatch and Courier'' (better known as '' Afternoon'') in 1985. He wrote a great deal about his distinctive Parsi heritage, customs and food.

Column, as ''Busybee''

Contractor continued to write articles for the ''Times of India'' and the ''Midday'' under the

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

''Busybee'' even while serving as editor of his own paper, and wrote the column
Round and About
'.

Food writer

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 o

a publication that honored him with 50 quotations.

Awards, etc

He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1990, and the Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism in 1996.

Book

In 1998, Contractor published ''From Bombay to Mumbai'', a collection of the best of Busybee's columns from 1996 and 1997.

Personal life

In 1985, the "almost confirmed bachelor", as his wife-to-be described him later, married Farzana Contractor, also a journalist. Behram Contractor died in 2001 from a heart attack.

''Afternoon Despatch & Courier''

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 he''Afternoon''. She recalled the early days of the launch as being tough times. The paper proprietor Kamal Morarka when it was shut.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Contractor, Behram 1930 births 2001 deaths Recipients of the Padma Shri in literature & education 20th-century Indian journalists Chalapati Indian male journalists The Times of India journalists Indian food writers Journalists from Maharashtra Writers from Mumbai Parsi people from Mumbai Parsi writers Parsi culture