The former Prime Minister of India Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao (1921 - 2004) was one of the biggest polyglots I have heard of. Apart from his mother tongue Telugu he could also fluently speak Hindi, Urdu, Tamil, Marathi, English, Kannada, Oriya, Sanskrit, French and Spanish. He translated Viswanatha Satyanarayana's Telugu literary classic Veyipadagalu (Thousand Snake-hoods) into Hindi as Sahasraphan. He also translated Hari Narayan Apte's Marathi novel Pan Lakshat Kon Gheto? (But Who Cares?) into Telugu as Abala Jeevitham.
In the twilight of his career when people were expecting an autobiography he came out with a 700 page novel in English called The Insider. It traces the life of a politician called Anand who rises up in Delhi politics and that's where the novel ends. There are elements of the author himself in the spicy novel and it begged for a sequel. When the book came out in 1998 I remember reading a review by the then Kerala Chief Minister E.K. Nayanar in his party's weekly magazine Chintha decrying the work and deriding 'the sleazy story unbecoming of someone who sat in the Prime Minister's chair'. But the likes of me loved the book for exactly the same reason, even as I admire Comrade Nayanar to this day for his warm humanity and his accomplishments as a journalist.
Rao's speeches, in parliament and outside, were a joy to listen to; they were studies in erudition. He did his homework whether on the ozone layer or Sangam era literature or Congo crisis. His book 'Ayodhya 6th December 1992' was published posthumously as he had wanted. His selected speeches come in a book called 'A Long Way.' He was a strategist of the Chanakya kind whose actions are subject to debate. By paying Rs 50 lakhs each to four tribal MPs and buying their votes he ensured his government's longevity. In other words, he (his Congress party that is) spent Rs 2 crores on bribe and saved the country Rs 500 crores expenditure (which a midterm election would have wrought upon us). A widower for three decades, he had sired three sons and five daughters.
Rao once did away with the interpreter while receiving the Premier of Spain! Half Lion, his biography by Vinay Sitapati is an excellent read. I was surprised to learn that Rao worked on his computer for pastime, on stuff like UNIX. His digital diary is irretrievably lost with its password protection. Politically he came to face the worst ostracisation. Congress President Sonia Gandhi so hated him that his body was not even allowed inside the AICC building. The family cremated him in Hyderabad and not Delhi as they had wanted.
In the twilight of his career when people were expecting an autobiography he came out with a 700 page novel in English called The Insider. It traces the life of a politician called Anand who rises up in Delhi politics and that's where the novel ends. There are elements of the author himself in the spicy novel and it begged for a sequel. When the book came out in 1998 I remember reading a review by the then Kerala Chief Minister E.K. Nayanar in his party's weekly magazine Chintha decrying the work and deriding 'the sleazy story unbecoming of someone who sat in the Prime Minister's chair'. But the likes of me loved the book for exactly the same reason, even as I admire Comrade Nayanar to this day for his warm humanity and his accomplishments as a journalist.
Rao's speeches, in parliament and outside, were a joy to listen to; they were studies in erudition. He did his homework whether on the ozone layer or Sangam era literature or Congo crisis. His book 'Ayodhya 6th December 1992' was published posthumously as he had wanted. His selected speeches come in a book called 'A Long Way.' He was a strategist of the Chanakya kind whose actions are subject to debate. By paying Rs 50 lakhs each to four tribal MPs and buying their votes he ensured his government's longevity. In other words, he (his Congress party that is) spent Rs 2 crores on bribe and saved the country Rs 500 crores expenditure (which a midterm election would have wrought upon us). A widower for three decades, he had sired three sons and five daughters.
Rao once did away with the interpreter while receiving the Premier of Spain! Half Lion, his biography by Vinay Sitapati is an excellent read. I was surprised to learn that Rao worked on his computer for pastime, on stuff like UNIX. His digital diary is irretrievably lost with its password protection. Politically he came to face the worst ostracisation. Congress President Sonia Gandhi so hated him that his body was not even allowed inside the AICC building. The family cremated him in Hyderabad and not Delhi as they had wanted.
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