Everyone had a view on Memoirs Of A Maverick by Mani Shankar Aiyar. Hence it was a relatively rowdy book club meeting, with constant interruptions of one speaker by another.
Nalini Tyabji made the lead presentation, followed by Radhika Dubash. In fact Nalini was so enthusiastic about the book that she carried on and on, until she was reminded that other participants too wanted to contribute.
Mani relates his life history in a readable and lively manner. In fact, it is a page turner, right from the days he joined Doon School. He admits that he had done very badly in the Doon School entrance exam and got in only because the head of his previous school [ Welhams ] persuaded the headmaster of Doon to let him in. Mani says that his performance in class or on the playing fields of Doon was mediocre.
That comes as a surprise as he is talented and bright. We became aware of his abilities once he joined St Stephen’s College in 1958. All of us who have studied there will resonate with his interview day : He says : I was made to wait on a bench in the corridor near the bursar’s office…. like all of us wondering when one would be summoned in, and the questions the interview panel would ask. In the event he sailed in and did well in the finals. Indeed very well. He got a first in the finals and stood first in the university. Thereafter it was Cambridge where he met up with friends who stayed with him for life. Rahul Singh is one and during their Cambridge days it was Rahul who got Peter Sellers to address the India Society who kept the lot of them in splits for two hours.
It was at Cambridge that Mani met Rajiv who was some years his junior. Much is made of his closeness to the future PM, but he says that he came to know him only once he was inducted into the PMO. Interestingly, Mani was rejected for the IAS and the IFS because he was considered to be a communist. But several influential people canvassed for him and he got in.
Apart from Rahul Singh the Editor, another friend of Mani was Ranjit Chib who used to make his own wine To quote Mani : To this end, he had bought a cartload of grapes and filled his bathtub with them. House rules required all guests to spend half an hour everyday stamping on the grapes to squeeze the juice out to get the resultant mess to start fermenting. I did my daily quota.
Thereafter there are chapters on the author’s various postings. The first was to Hanoi., thereafter to Pakistan where his contribution was significant. And several other places. He has an interesting section on Bhutto‘s hanging, the shooting of Indira Gandhi and the issue of succession, and his years with Rajiv Gandhi.
As noted, there was a vociferous discussion. Dr Gautam Vohra got the ball rolling by saying that the main ability of Mani was to get his point of view across in an entertaining manner. The view voiced by Prajapati Trivedi and Samir Bhagat that Mani did not do as well in his career as he was a controversial character, getting into scrapes of all kinds.
Patricia Montalto and Anita Katiyal, were keen to make points on the posts he had held, saying he tended to shoot off his mouth more than necessary while Mira Gutpa said his various qualities enabled him to lead and interesting and even an enjoyable life. And so ended a vibrant discussion.
