I reproduce the two letters.
This column I shall confine to two letters. My letter to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on 31 May 1981 from Islamabad. I was then Ambassador (not High Commissioner) to Pakistan.
The second letter is to me from Raja Rao (1909-1997) the novelist. His best novel in my judgement is Kanthapura. However, The Serpent and the Rope is much better known.
31 May 1981
Dear Madam,
On your 50th birthday I had the good fortune to ride with you to Palam Airport to receive President Novotny of Czechoslovakia. Being at that time thirty six and thoughtless, I asked you, “how does it feel to be 50?” and you told me the story of a lady who hid under the bed on the eve of her 30th birthday and refused to come out. She looked at me and said, “after 30 I stopped counting.”
I turned 50 on 16th May. Middle age arrived rather silently and I felt none the wiser. Panditji once wrote that wisdom sometimes comes suddenly and unexpectedly. I await its arrival with serenity and till that happens, I intend to feel fine and forty-nine.
You might recall my speaking to you about President Kaunda’s Man Friday- Ranganathan. He will be in Delhi from 5-12 June at Ashoka Hotel. I have asked him to contact Dhawan. If you can spare the time, then do see him. He is a shy little man with a cherubic face, but obviously endowed with supernatural gifts. He is also very discreet.
Your visit to the Gulf got the Paks very worked up. They have been deluding themselves by taking the Gulf rulers for granted and the Gulf itself as a Pakistani lake.
The Chinese PM arrives tomorrow. Then P.V. Narasimha Rao on the 8th. I am most grateful to you for sending him at this time. The one obvious plus is that we have taken the initiative even when the Paks are busy maligning us. From 8 June the point of reference in Indo-Pak relations will be the visit of Narasimha Rao. More substantially his visit will give heart to the silent majority here—they want good relations with India. It will at the same time, silence those in India, who have been critical of our Pak policy. Finally it will give the Americans, Russians, Chinese and the Islamic countries something to ponder over.
At the same time I am not pitching my expectations too high, as I see no immediate prospect of a dramatic or spectacular breakthrough in our bilateral relations. The Zia-ul-Haq junta is about the worst in terms of quality. It really is very frustrating dealing with such people but I take a long-term view of our relations with Pakistan. I don’t expect too much, nor do I despair of getting anything at all. I remain unimpressed in the face of verbal professions of friendliness. Zia-ul-Haq is a past master at insincere verbalising.
Tomorrow I go to Zia’s dinner for the Chinese Prime Minister. The first thing I shall do is to find out the nearest exit—in case Kashmir is brought up. I hope the need for a walkout will not arise but if it did then I should know how to make a quick and dignified exit.
With respects,
As ever,
Natwar Singh
* * *
The University of Texas at Austin
Austin, Texas, 78712
1808 Pearl Street,
Austin, Texas, 78701
USA
Dear, dear Natwar,
You must wonder what is happening to me—no, nothing else than that I have been working very-very hard on a book, and (you will be happy to hear) it is a novel, the first novel after I wrote The Serpent and the Rope some twenty years ago. This time, however, the novel has become long, very long indeed—some sixteen hundred pages long, and it will be in three volumes (1) The Hunt in the Himalayas. (2) In the Tiger’s Mouth. (3) The Myrabolan in the Palm of your hand. And there will be two appendices, as part of the novel: A letter to Andre Malraux, and a final letter from Michel (a character in the novel) on the presence of good and evil in the world etc. As you see, it is a most ambitious task, but it has been exciting to write. The main theme is, the ultimate dialogue is not between the East and the West but between Brahmin and the rabbi, the Brahmin this time happens to be a mathematician, and the story moves backwards and forwards between India and Europe (as in The Serpent and the Rope) but this time America too is in the picture, mainly Princeton. I have worked so hard on this book for three years that I am well-nigh exhausted, and I will therefore now take a holiday going to Europe and India, and Europe again. Tell me if you will be in London at the end of December or in February, for I would so much like to see you again and talk to you, of my book and of so many other things.
Also, though the book is finished in its first version. I have to verify many facts, and add a few more passages, philosophical or mathematical, and again cut a few pages if I can. So the book will not be ready for publication till January 1978, at the earliest. It has been most exalting to write, and this time my work is sadder and my themes more difficult than ever before. However, we might be able to talk of all this when we meet—and I hope we can.
Yours affably
Raja