His career as a journalist started in 1972 as an editorial apprentice in Deccan Herald in Bangalore. He moved to Indian Express in Cochin the following year when the edition for Kerala was started there. John Thomas moved to Singapore via Hong Kong in 1980 and worked that decade between Reuters and Agence France-Presse and a year in Business Times in Singapore to re-convert to print and return to India. He then rejoined the Deccan Herald in Bangalore in 1990. From there, I went to Calcutta in 1998 with a job in The Statesman and returned to Bangalore in 2002 and became part of the founding team of Vijay Times. Superannuated in 2006 and took to journalism teaching. His teaching career began with my involvement in the founding of the Asian College of Journalism [ACJ] in Bangalore in 1994 under the patronage of the Indian Express. Since then, he taught at three more such specialised institutions -- Manorama School of Communication (Mascom) in Kottayam, Indian Institute of Journalism & New Media (IIJNM) in Bangalore and ISB&M School of Communication in Pune. John Thomas served on the board of studies of Christ College, St Joseph's College and Sikkim-Manipal University. And apart from media students of those establishments, he also counts "in my flock", those of Kristu Jayanti College, Garden City College, and St Aloysius College (Mangalore). Says John: "I've tried to be in real retirement, watching the progress of old students and trainees of my working years and post some things for them to read on https://www.facebook.com/Journucopia and https://twitter.com/JTbangalore I was persuaded to return to lead the India operations of International Business Times in Bangalore as Consulting Editor in August 2015. Did what I could in six months and am back to being a media watcher." Recorded by Frederick Noronha (FN).