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Remembering Kalkat, the farm officer
Read more here: Remembering Kalkat, the farm officerThe Tribune, Chandigarh | February 1, 2018 The success of Punjab’s Green Revolution is well known and, I think today, that Dr Kalkat and others were not adequately recognised. The Punjab Agriculture University at Ludhiana was set up in 1960 by Sardar Pratap Singh Kairon. Mr PN Thapar, ICS, was the first Vice-Chancellor. A remarkable…
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Gas crematoria for Punjab
Read more here: Gas crematoria for PunjabThe Sunday Tribune, Chandigarh | June 25, 2017 Kaffeeklatsch: ‘Media would not be intimidated’, dated June 11, was a good read. Heera Chand Guglani’s verse on the futility of expenditure on last rites drew my attention in particular. When I was a Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab (2004-2016), the then Deputy Commissioner, Amritsar, who also…
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Blame it on the machines
Read more here: Blame it on the machinesThe Tribune, Chandigarh | March 21, 2017 After the results of the UP assembly polls, EVMs are in focus. Losers claim EVMs were “rigged,” while ECI swears by the safe and tamper-proof system. Critics say the core issue is democracy and the transparency of the electoral process. In early 1997, when I was the Chief…
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Men and Memories: A walk down history lane
Read more here: Men and Memories: A walk down history laneThe Tribune, Chandigarh | November 3, 2016 Partition in 1947 was the greatest subcontinental disaster, leading to migration and misery for the people of Punjab. Governor Glancey wrote to M.A. Jinnah that he was doing everything to clear out the rural Sikhs from the rich canal colonies. Daily violence in Lahore pushed out Hindus and…
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Time to invoke the Sufi culture
Read more here: Time to invoke the Sufi cultureThe Tribune, Chandigarh | June 18, 2016 The conversion of the Lal Khoohi gurdwara, historically recorded as a gurdwara, into a Muslim shrine makes one regret that the pluralistic culture and tradition of the subcontinent is being violated. We must revive universal love preached by Baba Farid. I come from a village, just outside Tarn…
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My Spot Of Green
Read more here: My Spot Of GreenOutlook | May 16, 2016 I’ll miss the birds in my garden, but will they miss me? In life, there is a time to come, and a time to go. Eight years ago, we came to this Lutyen’s creation, in great excitement. Set in about 3 acres of park, with giant trees, this white elegance…
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A part of Chandigarh in Zurich
Read more here: A part of Chandigarh in ZurichThe Sunday Tribune, Chandigarh | October 25, 2015 The foundation of the new Punjab capital, Chandigarh, was laid in 1952 by Prime Minister Nehru. I was pursuing my MA from Government College, Ludhiana, and travelled for the first time to Chandigarh in 1956. Panjab University, under Dr Joshi, had moved from Solan to a few administrative…
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Delhi lobby can hit Chandigarh airport takeoff
Read more here: Delhi lobby can hit Chandigarh airport takeoffThe Tribune, Chandigarh | September 19, 2015 Sitting in Zurich on the 50th Anniversary of Corbusier passing away, I read that the international airport at Chandigarh has, finally, been inaugurated by the Prime Minister. The occasion fortuitously got linked with the memories of Corbusier, who is being celebrated in Chandigarh, as in Europe and particularly…
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DC in thick of war effort in Punjab sector
Read more here: DC in thick of war effort in Punjab sectorThe Sunday Tribune, Chandigarh | July 26, 2015 I joined the Punjab Cadre of the IAS in 1958. In August, 1965 with seven year service, I was appointed Deputy Commissioner of Ambala, the old British district which stretched, from the Sutlej at Bhakra, to the Yamuna on the border of the U.P. There was no…
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Remembering Ajit
Read more here: Remembering AjitIn August 1965, newly married and barely 30, I became Deputy Commissioner of the old British District of Ambala, which stretched from Bhakra to the Yamuna, below the hills. There was no Haryana till November, 1966. The Indo-Pak war started on the 6th September. Those were exciting times; we were bombed twice, by Pak Air.…
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A Journey To The Other Punjab
Read more here: A Journey To The Other PunjabOutlook | April 23, 2015 On 18th August, 2014, the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan decided to confer on me an Honorary Doctorate for my work in Agriculture and Rural Development, in my Punjab, as Secretary, Agriculture India, as head of a huge programme of agricultural and rural development in Sokoto, Nigeria, and for my…
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The Warmth of Lahore
Read more here: The Warmth of LahoreHT City, Chandigarh | March 11, 2012 When I was a little boy in Tarn Taran, a doggerel known to every Punjabi was oft quoted: “The man who has not been to Lahore, is not born”. A second lesser known, but often said in verbal jousts ran: The Donkey has been to Lahore, and now puts…
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Changing a Name
Read more here: Changing a NameThe Tribune | February 17, 2012 Punjab lost Chandigarh in 1966. In 1968 Lachman Singh Gill became Chief Minister for a short while. In those nine months, he forced the PWD to build metal link roads to villages, and made Punjabi the state language. Having lost Chandigarh, he started the Mohali town development project, continuing…
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Delhi Diary
Read more here: Delhi DiaryOutlook | August 15, 2011 A Murder At The Waterhole The months of April and May bring hot, dust-laden winds from Rajasthan to Delhi. The sky turns brassy, the trees, the birds and even the roving troupes of monkeys from Raisina Hill who regularly traipse through my garden, long for water to moisten their parched…
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Joy, And The River Of Sorrow
Read more here: Joy, And The River Of SorrowOutlook | June 27, 2011 At the end of May, I undertook a joyride in the districts of Amritsar, Ferozepur, Muktsar, Faridkot and Tarn Taran, on both sides of the Sutlej. It was a chance to see and learn—a rare thing these days. The hot, dry summer had set in; the wheat had been harvested,…
