My rating: 4 of 5 stars"The Odyssey of An Indian Journalist," the memoir by Nyayapati Ramanuja Swami, offered me a glimpse into the life of a journalist in the second half of the last century. As an Indian history buff, I gained a new perspective about the political landscape after India's independence. The pen portraits of the personalities that the author encountered on his professional journey made for interesting reading.
NVR Swami was the Press Trust of India's first correspondent in Africa. My knowledge of Africa has been limited to the little I see on TV. Through Swami's vivid writing in the book covering East and South Africa, I was able to visualize the tumultuous political scene in African countries and learn a little more about its leaders like Mandela and Mugabe. I learned that there have been over five dozen coups in about 30 African states since 1960!
There are many anecdotes, fun-filled facts, and trivia that kept the 140+ page book engaging. Here are some samples:
- In 1949, the Indian Prime Minister Nehru and Lady Mountbatten visited Konark.
- When Kasturba Gandhi was on her deathbed and her son Harilal went to meet her, Gandhi disallowed him because he stank of alcohol.
- At Stewart School in Cuttack, where the author studied, "Caning was part of the school regimen for errant boys and girls. The girls showed their hands, the boys their bums—unstripped."
- On his first job in Madras as a cub reporter in 1961, he was sent to cover a rally at Mount Road. He was attacked by a protester for asking a question in Hindi. The demonstration was to protest the imposition of Hindi.
- Trams in Bombay were withdrawn in 1964.
- Jaikishan of the Shankar-Jaikishan duo was a heavy drinker. He died of cirrhosis of the liver.
- Morarji Desai practiced urine therapy. He firmly believed that drinking a glass of his own urine had medicinal effects. The efficacy of his therapy was discussed and ridiculed time and again in the media. Desai was unmoved; he held his views. A reporter asked the British Prime Minister James Callaghan if there was a state dinner planned when the two (Morarji Desai and James Callaghan) met. Big Jim, as he was popularly known, quipped, "I'm looking forward to having dinner with Mr. Desai. However, I prefer my own brand of whiskey." By saying he preferred his own brand of whiskey, Callaghan cleverly deflected the question while simultaneously alluding to Desai’s controversial health practices in a humorous way.
- Before joining politics and becoming the Chief Minister of Orissa, Bijoyananda Patnaik ran his own airline, Kalinga Airways. Biju Patnaik, as he became popularly known, was also a retired Wing Commander of the Royal Air Force.
- Before ruling Zimbabwe for decades, Robert Mugabe was a teacher. In 1980, Mugabe became the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe after the country gained independence from Britain. He later became the President of Zimbabwe in 1987, a position he held until his resignation in 2017. He had a penchant for traveling. He was nicknamed by local Zimbabweans as Vasco Da Gama, after the famous Portuguese navigator who discovered new sea routes in the 15th century and sailed via the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa to discover India. After setting independent Zimbabwe on a promising path, Mugabe went wrong in many ways, stepping onto a treadmill to disaster.
- After spending 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela was freed by South African President F.W. de Klerk. In 1994, South Africa held its first democratic elections, leading to a shared government between Mandela and de Klerk. The two leaders, who worked together to dismantle apartheid, were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.
- A former German colony, Pretoria had ruled South West Africa, as Namibia was called. After World War II, South Africa repeatedly ignored the World Court's tough warnings that it had no legality to rule the country. Sam Nujoma led a guerrilla outfit for 23 years until Namibia achieved independence in 1990.
- Diwali was a public holiday in Kenya in the 1980s.
- China has been the largest importer of Zimbabwean tobacco for years.