http://www.bagchiblog.blogspot,com
The other day, to
be precise on August 8, 2019, my big brother Sanjoy, generally known as Dada,
crossed a huge milestone. After completing his 90th year he stepped
into his tenth decade. This should have been a day of jubilation but that
couldn’t be as it also happened to be the first death anniversary of my second
brother who left us on this very day last year.
Dada’s ninety
years were delightful to look back on. As my mother used to tell us, he was a
precocious child and uniformly did well in school. The World War II broke out
when he was just 10 years old. He took upon himself to monitor through the
newspaper reports the progress of the Allied Armies daily in a diary. This
diary would be referred to by even my father’s friends and colleagues from his
college when they came over for their monthly session of bridge. He was a
reasonably good student and in the college he became a member of the debating
team in which were, among others, Atal Bihari Vajpayee who later became prime
minister. It was my father’s colleague and best friend Prof Qureishy who
insisted on him to opt for Geography as the subject for his post graduation and
after which he encouraged him to take the IAS Etc. Examinations. Prof Qureishy
had lost two of his ICS brothers during the partition riots.
In his
administrative career he frequently fell foul of his political masters.
Probably, he had a congenital dislike for the politicians including the highest
of the land. But because of his competence and irrefutable honesty they could
only transfer him from place to place. Perhaps he found fulfillment of his
ambitions when he was deputed to the Union Government. He was initially posted
as Addl. Textile Commissioner in which post he again came across an utterly
corrupt minister who, as a measure of punishment, transferred him to the
Ministry of Commerce as Joint Secretary and head of the then small Policy
Planning division.
Nobody in the Commerce Ministry or elsewhere
wanted this post. He went and took it up and was required to go practically
every month to Brussels, the headquarters of the European Union, for
negotiations. His intellect, knowledge of trade matters and capability to
interpret the complicated GATT rules attracted attention of Arthur Dunkel,
Director General of General Agreements on Trade & Tariffs, a specialised
agency of the UN. He was called by name by Dunkel to assist him as consultant
to him. That is when a career in GATT began for as long as 20 years during
which he won the hearts of even the representatives of the countries not very
friendly with India. It is, in fact, because of their insistence that he
chaired the International Textile Control Board after his retirement from GATT.
This he gave up after completion of the term of three years to return home.
Since them he
has been home. Voracious reader as he used to be, he read a lot ordering stacks
of books every month. He even wrote a book on Indian Bureaucracy that was
published by Rupa. As he progressively aged his eyes failed and he had to give
up his passion for reading. Yet the verve for life remains. Every evening he is
in the Arera Club to spend time with old associates. It is like “steady church
going” for him. Another marked trait is that he continues to be a foodie with
emphasis on the non-vegetarian type of stuff.
Now that he has
attained a coveted milestone one wishes him continued good health, happiness and well
being.
No comments:
Post a Comment