Author: K Natwar Singh
Publisher: Rupa
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 279
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8129102358
Description
This book highlights the intellectual and diplomatic distinction of the author. From a very young age he came into intimate contact with world-renowned personalities. From his letters, he emerges as a man of tremendous ability and integrity, who writes elegant prose while displaying his ability to laugh at himself.
As Natwar reveals: "while working on this book, the thought struck me that the Natwar Singh of these letters was obviously someone what had been transmuted out of the indubitably common metal that he is, into a superior product by the alchemy of the minds of indulgent and warm hearted well-wishers."
Indira Gandhi, R K Narayan, Han Suyin, E M Foster, Nargis Dutt et al figure in the list of these distinguished well-wishers. These letters tell us as much about the writers as they reflect on the engaging personality of the recipient. Each celebrity seems to have influenced the author's zeitgeist and weltanschauung in different ways.
Contents
PREFACE
C RAJAGOPALACHARI
A Progressive Conservative
E M FOSTER
Only Connect
NIRAD C CHAUDHURI
Dissenter by Disposition
LORD LOUIS MOUNTBATTEN
A Friend of India
VIJAYA LAKSHMI PANDIT
The Younger and the Older Sister
R K NARAYAN
Our Man in Malgudi
HAN SUYIN
Hewr Several Avtars
INDIRA GANDHI
Gravitas and Style
ZIA-UL-HAQ
Master of Courtesy and PR
NARGIS DUTT
Queen of Post-1947 Cincema