BENGALURU : Ambassador Pascal Alan Nazareth’s eventful career in the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) began in March 1959 when he and his colleagues were received by then PM Jawaharlal Nehru. At the same time, Foreign Secretary Subimal Dutt entered suddenly, whispering something in his ear. “It was about the Dalai Lama having crossed the border into India early that morning. Then turning to the Foreign Secretary, he said: ‘These young officers will be dealing with the consequences of today!’” he recalls.
In his autobiography, A Ringside Seat To History, Nazareth shares more such experiences, both professional and personal. The book will release on a webinar on September 30, with one of the speakers being former foreign secretary Nirupama Rao. Giving in to his childrens’ request to pen his journey in the IFS, Nazareth started work on this book on his 80th birthday in 2016. He has spent the last four years scouring through newspaper cuttings he made during and after service, researching details to put together the 250-page book, comprising a collection of old pictures.
The third-time author who has previously written on Gandhi – books of which have been translated into several languages – admits that writing an autobiography was a different experience. “They are more complex since it’s hard to decide what to include and what not to. Having commenced writing it, I found little time for it because of frequent cruise lecture engagements, and travels for releases of the many language editions of my book, Gandhi’s Outstanding Leadership,” he says, adding, “My son, Anand kept nagging me about my having spent almost 20 years researching and writing about the already well-known Mahatma Gandhi and not writing my ‘remarkable story which was far more interesting to GenNext’.”
Social media and internet savvy, Nazareth spent six to eight hours when time permitted, typing out the book, unlike his first, which was handwritten. Once complete, he was encouraged by his revered mentor, former Foreign Secretary M K Rasgotra – who has written the foreword – who recommended it to his publisher. But after retaining it for seven months, Nazareth was informed that it didn’t “fit the profile of our current non-fiction list.” Alva then introduced him to her publisher, who as Nazareth puts in his book was “obviously interested primarily in spicy narratives of political party-hoppings and back-stabbings rather than in history and diplomacy,” and responded tersely that it wouldn’t work for them.
“I anguished over these twice ‘dashed hopes’ for some weeks and then decided to make one final effort to get this manuscript published,” he says, after which he wrote to his IFS colleague T P Sreenivasan, who introduced him to Konark Publishers, which has brought out the book. “The process took only 33 days,” he says.
FROM THE PAGES
On the afternoon of December 31 1984, when Nazareth and others at ICCR were involved in finalising details for the Paris Opera presentation at Siri Fort Auditorium that evening, his sister Margaret Alva telephoned to inform him that then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had summoned her to Rashtrapati Bhavan at 5 pm that evening for being sworn in as a minister. “Her husband Niranjan was away in Mangalore, and she hoped I, her elder brother, would accompany her to this important event.
I was delighted by the excellent news she had conveyed, but was taken aback by her request because of the importance of that evening’s ICCR event. Nonetheless, I agreed, picked her up at her residence and took her to Rashtrapati Bhavan. When we arrived, the security staff permitted Margaret to enter but not me as my name was not on their list of invitees. Fortunately, Foreign Minister P V Narasimha Rao, who was ICCR chairman, arrived just then and intervened on my behalf,” he recalls.