Natwar Singh eminent writer, voracious reader, one of our influnetial bureaucrat turned politician
has authored many books – spoiled his
name in an alleged scandal, hailed from
the family of Princely state Rajas. I just read his book Hear to Heart- a mall
of varied information about diplomacy, personalities of Establishment, eminent
writers etc.
Exercpts
from Natwar Singh’s Heart To Heart
·
interview Tagore gave to the Soviet paper Izvestia in
Moscow on September 25,1930. While being polite and appreciative of several
achievements of the Stalinist regime, he did not mince words and said, "I
must ask you: are you doing your ideal service by arousing in the minds of
those under your training, anger, class hatred and revengefulness against those
not sharing your ideal, against those whom you consider your enemies?"
·
Nehru
analysed that Real leadership
that counts in an election or in a big organisation is the lower level
leadership. Where there is a big boss at the top, this lower level leadership
does not develop. Only those who pay court to the big boss can flourish. The
result is a weakening of the organisation. So long as there is no effective
opposition, it can carry on. But as soon as this opposition appears, it tends
to crumple up".
·
"Democratic politics and electioneering
encourage, to some extent, what are known as boss-politics. Leadership is
necessary, but the leadership should not encourage too much bossing.
·
No other people is so supremely indifferent to history
as the Indian. We disregard time. We invoke eternity. We leap, Hanumanlike,
from Ashok to the Guptas, from Harsha Vardhan to Akbar, from Akbar to Nehru,
paying no heed to disagreeable and degrading events in between.
·
Sardar Patel was undoubtedly among the three top
leaders of our freedom movement. He was a down-to-earth, practical man. A total
contrast to Jawaharlal Nehru, his junior by 14 years..Jawaharlal Nehru
possessed qualities and talents Patel did not and the Sardar was a big enough
man to accept this reality
·
Mrs. Vijayalakshmi Pandit represented India at
President Kennedy's funeral. I accompanied her.
·
Hemingway's definition of courage, "Grace under
pressure."
·
The philosopher, Kierkegaard has written that life
must be lived forward but can only be understood backwards
·
Gandhi said "Three moderns have left deep
impressions on my life and captivated me. Raychand Bhai by his book, Living
Contract; Tolstoy by his book, The Kingdom of God is Within You; and Ruskin by
his Unto This Last."
·
From London Gandhi wrote to Tolstoy. He drew Tolstoy's
attention to the plight of the Indian population who laboured under serious
legal
·
Tolstoy says, "Socialism, communism anarchism,
Salvation Army, the growing criminalities, unemployment and absurd luxuries of
the rich, augmented without limit, and the awful misery of the poor, the
terribly increasing number of suicides — all these are the signs of that inner
contradiction which must be there and which cannot be resolved; and without
doubt, can only be resolved by acceptance of the law of love and by the
rejection of all sorts of violence
·
Dr. Radhakrishnan was not unfamiliar with Marx. In
Fragments he makes a startling observation:, 'any sensitive man who takes life
seriously is somewhat inaccessible to the public'.. He combined clarity of
thought with purity of heart. His sensibility was all embracing. He taught
philosophy to politicians and politics to philosophers.... History is something
organic, a phase of man's terrestrial density as essential for him as memory is
for personal identity.' One regret he certainly nursed. For several years he
was a serious candidate for the Nobel Prize. Bertrand Russell, his friend and
fellow philosopher, beat him to it.1957, Place: Chung Nan Hai, Peking. Time:
late evening. Vice-President Radhakrishnan is entering Chairman Mao Tse-tung's
residence. The mighty Mao walks up to greet his distinguished guest midway in
the courtyard leading to his study.
·
. I was then on Mrs. Gandhi's staff. "Before you
hear it from someone else, let me tell you that Rajiv is marrying a lovely
Italian girl whom he met at Cambridge(Rajiv Sonia Marriage)
·
P NHaksar considered self-advertising unseemly and
vulgar. His direction of policy, his conceptualising of it, his penetrating
analysis of events, his deep understanding of the dynamics of national and
international events, could not but attract attention.He understood that
"Societies did not die from contradictions but from their inability to
remove them." He wanted to change and renew society, but by the right
means, right ideas, moral purpose, and at the same time avoiding distortions of
reality.
·
Ken Saro-Wiwa was a master of the English language. I
read his book with a heavy heart and an enraged (against his tormentors) mind.
Here we are at the end of the 20th century, preaching human rights, while
tolerating insane and cruel human wrongs. The map of Africa tells strange
stories — Mandela, Nyerere, Kaunda at one end, Achebe and Babangida at the
other.
·
My favourite Marquez novel is Love in the Time of
Cholera. Immensely comic and deeply intuitive. I have this past week read his
latest, Of Love and Other Demons. It is translated from the Spanish by Edith
Grossman.My discovery of Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a splendid case of
serendipity. Some years ago, the Rajiv Gandhis and the Natwar Singhs found
themselves in Dehra Dun. I noticed Sonia Gandhi had a book with her.I asked her
the name. She handed it to me. It was One Hundred Years of Solitude by Marquez.
She said it was an extraordinary novel. I soon bought a copy and read it
·
"It is not power that corrupts but fear."
Aung San Suu Kyi and fear are strangers.
·
Stalin and Ho met in 1952, a few months before the
Soviet leader's death in 1953, "Stalin pointed to two chairs, here is one
for nationalists and one for internationalists. On which do you wish to
sit?" Ho replied, "Comrade Stalin, I would like to sit on both
chairs". When Ho travelled by train
from Moscow to Hanoi via Peking in the company of Mao and Chou En Lai, Mao
said, "Getting something from Stalin is like taking meat from the mouth of
a tiger!"
·
Suyin married Peter's father Col. Vincent Rathnaswamy
nearly twenty years ago. Vincent is a silent, strong, self-effacing, serene,
loving, devoted husband. Without him the turbulence, turmoil and passions that
have filled Suyin's life would perhaps have landed her on the rocks and not on
the safe shores of the Marina in Madras.her autobiography My House Has Two
doors.Rathnaswamy, who was for many years a member of the Rajya Sabha. He was
educated both at Cambridge and Oxford. Suyin had many conversations with the
old man. He died in his 91st year. She has written, "In our first meeting,
he asked me about Mao; about China, the Communes, the Chinese Revolution.
