BOOK LAUNCH: 4 JULY 2014: New Delhi, India: A Chronology of Men, Matters and Events: Dharam Vir Taneja

SPEECH OF NARENDRA KUMAR, CHAIRMAN, HAR-ANAND PUBLICATIONS PVT. LTD.

Distinguished guests, I am honored to welcome you this evening at the launch of Mr Dharam Vir Taneja’s book entitled, A Chronology of Men, Matters and Events.  Today is also the author’s 90^th birthday. Please join me in wishing him many happy returns of the day, as well as a long and healthy life for many more similar books.

I understand from my discussions with his daughter Ramni Taneja that her father is extremely meticulous and although the manuscript was ready last year itself, he wanted to ensure absolute accuracy of facts and events. I am astonished at the author’s memory and his attention to details.

Born on this day in1924, in Quetta, Baluchistan, and having lived in India, United Kingdom and the  United Arab Emirates, the author, has had an illustrious career as a banker in different parts of the world. The book chronicles seven decades of history, banking and economics, both in India and overseas, from the perspective of a national and international banker, who is also, incidentally, a poet.  It is a fascinating narrative, peppered with true anecdotes and reminiscences of the author and his role in Indian and international banking, and the various eminent personalities he met and interacted with during the course of his professional life.

The book describes the author’s thoughts as he experienced and witnessed the painful and tragic partition of India in 1947. It further chronicles the life of the author, who rose from the rank of a junior clerk to the highest position as Chairman and Managing Director of a nationalized bank, and who subsequently achieved recognition overseas as well, by heading an international bank in the Middle East.

When I met the author recently, my impression of him was that of a soft-spoke person, who speaks very little, yet has the wisdom, grace and dignity of a sage. He also gave me his book of poems, Reflections in a Mirror, published in India in 1963 and also recently reprinted in the USA.

I am sure, ladies and gentlemen you will enjoy reading the book as much as we enjoyed publishing it.

NARENDRA KUMAR

Chairman

HAR-ANAND PUBLICATIONS PVT LTD

P.S. Now I invite the author’s daughters, Rashmi and Ramni, to say a few words.

Ramcharitmanas - Sant Tulsidas

http://www.youtube.com/v/tnyVAGXTdnM?autohide=1&version=3&autoplay=1&showinfo=1&attribution_tag=mHYnT6lz_5N1rYOopnWiOQ&autohide=1&feature=share

A Tribute to Mr Michael Sherrard QC CBE  
23 June 1928 to 30 October 2012  

Ever since I was a little girl studying in a grammar school in London, United Kingdom between 1971 and 1973, I used to wonder what I would do with my life when I grew up. I would say that 1973 proved to be the turning point of my young life at the time, when I met Mr Michael Sherrard, QC, who was at that point in time a distinguished Queens Counsel in the United Kingdom. 

What began as a chance encounter in London in 1973, blossomed into a guru shishya relationship, spanning a period of almost 40 years. Mr Sherrard guided me throughout my studies as a law student between 1977 and 1908 and thereafter during my career as a lawyer. Being admitted as an Indian Advocate in 1980 at the Bar Council of Maharashtra [transferred to the Bar Council of Delhi in 1997] and subsequently as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court [of England] in 1997, Mr Sherrard constantly guided me across the miles from 1973 onwards, through his beautifully penned handwritten letters, [during those years when there was no internet and there were no computers], via email, after the internet became an integral part of our lives, and on the telephone. 

It is a quintessential element of the Indian tradition and of Indian civilization that we are trained to worship and respect our elders as we consider them the embodiment of wisdom, erudition, nobility and experience, et al. Continuing this tradition, I was inspired by Mr Sherrard to seriously consider becoming a lawyer. I sought his guidance and blessings. I have always considered him to be my mentor in the legal profession. 

I was pained and overwhelmed with grief and shock when I heard from Mrs Shirley Sherrard, his beloved wife, of Mr Sherrard’s passing a few weeks ago, on 30 October 2012 in London. It is extremely difficult for me to reconcile myself to his being no more. I know that his last few years were difficult for him due to his distressing illness. He fought his illness valiantly till his peaceful and final departure from this world. 

Mr Sherrard has been for me an embodiment of kindness, wisdom, erudition, professionalism, brilliance, wit, and so much more, which remain unparalleled in the legal profession. He was extremely humane and intensely gentle which was evident in his continuing kindnesses to me, across oceans and countries and different jurisdictions, whether I was in the United Kingdom, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates [where I lived and practised as a lawyer for many years], or in India. 

In one of his innumerable handwritten notes to me on 4 December 1981, he blessed me with the following inspirational words: “May you continue to fight your causes and flourish as a proud Palm Tree, impervious to the winds of intolerance”. His blessings and writings stay with me always and his humility, good humor and endearing personality continue to inspire me. It was an honour and a privilege to have been his shishya and to have received his blessings. 

Mr Sherrard’s biography, Wigs and Wherefores, by Linda Goldman and Michael Sherrard is a compelling and fascinating read. His extraordinary achievements, his unstinted devotion to his work, his outstanding advocacy skills as one of the finest QCs the world has ever known, his deep commitment to the Middle Temple, where he was Treasurer, and also Director of Advocacy, Middle Temple, his being honoured with the CBE in 2003 by Her Majesty the Queen for services to the legal profession…………..I need say no more.

An extraordinary era has indeed closed, leaving us bereft of a treasured human being and sorrowing for a deeply noble soul. 

May God give his family the fortitude and strength to cope with his passing. May his soul rest eternally in peace. 

Ramni Taneja

New Delhi, India 

23 November 2012

Quotations: Dalai Lama

All major religious traditions carry basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness the important thing is they should be part of our daily lives.
Dalai Lama

Quotations: Swami Vivekanand

The essence of Vedanta is that there is but one Being and that every soul is that Being in full, not a part of that Being.
The essential thing in religion is making the heart pure; the Kingdom of Heaven is within us, but only the pure in heart can see the King. While we think of the world, it is only the world for us; but let us come to it with the feeling that the world is God, and we shall have God: Swami Vivekanand

Quotations: Swami Vivekanand

All knowledge that the world has ever received comes from the mind; the infinite library of the universe is in our own mind: Swami Vivekanand

Quotations: Swami Vivekanand

"Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and everything shall be added unto you." This is the one great duty, this is renunciation. Live for an ideal, and leave no place in the mind for anything else. Let us put forth all our energies to acquire that which never fails--our spiritual perfection. If we have true yearning for realization, we must struggle, and through struggle growth will come. We shall make mistakes, but they may be angels unawares : Swami Vivekanand