LIFE OF OUR TIMES, A

sirIt is superb autobiography from a former diplomat Mr Rajeswar Dayal ICS. There are a very few memoirs written by former diplomats or administrators in India. He severed our country well, and was a great patriot India produced who never care even for his safety, as is evident from his mission Congo where the Secretary General and other team members of Mr Dayal liquidated. He is expert on solving intractable and tedious problems. His tenure as Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan was so fine that even after him no body could handle the India Pakistan relations so adroitly as he did. It was he who got signed the Indo-Pak river dispute which was lying unresolved for 9 years and 4 Ambassadors probed to be failure before him. Why this happened? His family relations with Field Marshall Ayub Khan and good understanding with Pakistani foreign minister Mr Manjur Kadir. It is sure that if Pandit Nehru might not have transferred him on Congo mission for six months he would have solved the Kashmir problem. During his tenure that Pakistan President attended the Republic Day function at Indian High Commission in Karachi to everybody^s surprise. It was Mr Julfiquar Ali Bhutto who vitiated Indo Pak relations culminating to 1965 War and death of Indian Prime Minister. Some Indian were also responsible for bad relationship.He was very unhappy during Simla Agreement that Mr Bhuto be fooled Mrs Indira Gandhi in spite of her very able team of Mr Jagjeevan Ram Indian Defense Minister,Sardar Swarna Singh as Indian Foreign Minister, Y B Chavan as Indian Finance minister and T N Kaul as Foreign Secretary, P N Huxer as Principle Secretary to the Prime Minister. It was Indian Defeat in Victory. India got nothing but simplewhite paper as Simla agreement which was repudiated by Bhuto as soon as reached Lahore from Simla. We Indians are suffering and Mrs Indira Gandhi realized at great cost this.The writer is very honest and upright while narrating his memoirs, experiences and balanced reporting is there. He was in great demandduring his 35 years of service. His wife Mrs Shushila, who was daughter of Mr J P Srivastava a prominent member of Viceroy Council, helped a lot him in his duties and life. His English is lucid which made this book a very interesting and fascinating. I relished it very much and thank the Orient Longman for publishing at a very affordable price. The get up of the book is also very fine. There is good information useful for everybody in the book I very strongly recommend the book to everybody.