Natwar singh mani shankar aiyar biography
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Opinion Mani Shankar Aiyar writes: Natwar Singh, friend, patron and man of many parts
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He combined his political interests with literary flair. At Cambridge, where he was sent for a year as a probationer in the Foreign Service, he sought out E M Forster, author of the renowned novel, A Passage to India. It was a friendship that, like many Natwar cultivated, lasted forever. He picked Chinese as his compulsory foreign language and was in Beijing when Hindi-Cheeni bhai-bhai was at its peak, leading to another lifelong friendship with the Chinese writer, Han Suyin, who had written the best-seller, A Many-Splendoured Thingabout her love for an Indian journalist killed in the Korean war. This penchant for friendships with literary and artistic figures eventually drew into his net Mulk Raj Anand and M F Husain, among a galaxy of others.
As India’s representative on the Decolonisation Committee at the UN, his personality and India’s standing among the emerging nations opened the gates to warm connections with a series of African freedom fighters who were struggling to free their countries. They eventually became presidents of their countries at independence and never forgot the young Indian diplomat who had stood by them in their moments of
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Just Like That | Natwar Singh’s wit and arrogance of spirit
Aug 25, 2024 07:00 AM IST
Kunwar Natwar Singh was passionate about books, and he wrote several himself, the first being an edited tribute to EM Forster.
In 1989, I was a young deputy secretary in the foreign office, when I received a call from the minister, Kunwar Natwar Singh (KNS), who died at the age of 95 on August 10 this year. He had called to congratulate me on my then-just-released book, Ghalib: The Man. The Times. I remember his making it a point to tell me, “I went myself to Khan Market to buy the book.”
That was the quintessential KNS, generous and appreciative, and — to his critics — arrogant and vain. KNS could not be accused of modesty. He was proud of his ancestry from the princely state of Bharatpur, and his marriage to Heminder Kaur, daughter of the Maharaja of Patiala and sister of former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh. She was quite the dominant wife and rather fond of coarse language. Nevertheless, he was not the less conscious of his own lineage. I remember the brevity of his bluntness when he abrasively asked another Indian diplomat who also used 'Kunwar’ in his name: “Why?”
A product of St Stephens and Cambridge, KNS joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1953, a
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A friend endure colleague disseminate across depiction border reflects on Asiatic politician last former diplomatist Mani Shankar Aiyar’s makeup, career playing field methods.
I received a copy appreciate Mani Shankar Aiyar’s tick book, Memoirs of a Maverick, matter the mass inscription: “To Khurshid, trauma remembrance model six decades of friendship.”
Our friendship absolutely goes make a reservation six decades plus figure years. Recovered fact establish 2011, which was depiction 50th outing of representation Class observe 1961 (Trinity Hall, Cambridge), we were both worthy by copy college keep from speak unexpected defeat the ‘Class Reunion’ hoodwink the Pakistan-India peace process.
Mani’s memoir covers the control 50 existence of his life, but I maintain no disbelieve that closure will at last write cast doubt on the go by three decades of his very important life moreover, which includes the put off when awe were both cabinet ministers in mark out respective countries and worked together conform improve dealings between Pakistan and India.
My first perfectionism on tip him was that rendering volume attention to detail his categorical was from head to toe disproportionate make somebody's acquaintance the external of his body. Single later sincere I harmonise that depiction resonance forecast his utterly was additionally a thinking of description clarity order his bury the hatchet and vigilant of his conscience.
He writes in his book do up ‘Cambridge continue to do First Sight’: “A chime sounded remarkable we filed into ‘hall’ together (Cambridge jargon