HYDERABAD: The story of a now Hyderabadi, a man who grew up in a small village in Himachal Pradesh, and how his childhood and surroundings inspired him to become a world-renowned scientist, is now out — via an autobiography. Dr Suresh Pande opens up with CE about his first non-scientific book called The Memoirs of a Tota Rani Boy, why he sat down to write it, what’s for us in it and more.
Dr Suresh Pande, a former Principal Scientist at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) has 35 years of experience in the field of agriculture and has worked in African countries, Asian countries, the UK, and the USA in the International Agriculture Research for Development. At the age of 74 years, Dr Suresh took up the challenge of writing the first book outside of scientific writing titled The Memoirs of a Tota-Rani Boy — an anthology of struggles and shocks of a boy from Tota-Rani.
Talking about his inspiration behind writing the book, he said, “We are not in the league of great people who have others to write our story but everyone is a dreamer and has a story to tell and if I write my own story I can be a spokesman to the ordinary people who have a story to tell. I have been thinking about writing a book for the past two to three years, and I took six months to create an outline and it took one year to complete the book.”
Dr Suresh visited some of the places that he wrote about in the book to refresh his memory. He also felt that writing in English was a little difficult at the beginning as he had a very humble beginning. “We used kerosene lamps and used to bath at the river stream and the nearest school was 2 miles away from where we lived. My parents always made sure that my five sisters and I got the education we needed.” He pursued his Bachelors and Masters of Science in Agriculture from the College of Agriculture in Solan in the year 1966 and 1973 respectively, where he qualified for the Government of India Scholarship. He was always inclined towards nature and enjoyed the study of the environment.
“The place I grew up in and my affinity towards environment led me to pursue agriculture,” he shared. Dr Suresh has also worked to improve crop productivity, food security, and conservation of the environment and writes about climate changes, water conservation, and kitchen garden to raise awareness among common man. Talking about the growing issues of global warming, pollution, and other such issues, he said, “The young generation should not give up on the environment. A little responsibility from the younger generation can make a bigger difference than one might think.”