“Surendra Kumar is an unconventional diplomat; he calls a spade a spade without any diplomatic dilemma,” is how the book jacket of “India and the World: Through the eyes of Indian diplomats” (Wisdom Tree publication), scheduled to be launched next week, describes its editor. I come to agree with it after our luncheon meeting at the Embassy with the restaurant playing a perfect host and providing a separate room for the interaction.
How did this book – a collection of essays by 33 Indians Ambassadors including him — come about? He replies wearing a smile, “I had not planned this book. I was attending a function in which the book ‘Ambassador’s Club’ edited by Ambassador K.V. Rajan was being released by Dr. Shashi Tharoor. While browsing through the book Tharoor did not find my name in it and remarked ‘I wish Ambassador Surendra Kumar was also part of this book; he has a lot to share.’ That set me thinking. If Dr. Shashi Tharoor says I have a lot to share he can’t be wrong and led me to put together this big contributory volume. In a way he is the spiritual father of this book.”
It was no easy task for Kumar who wrote to more than 75 ambassadors requesting them to contribute. He finally received articles from 32 of them. “Many said no citing various reasons while some did not respond at all. Barring a few I had continuously pursue the rest, a difficult, frustrating and sometimes annoying task. I had to send reminders, in some cases more than 10 times. Many times I felt like giving up but persisted and at the end of the day we have an excellent collection contributed by people, spanning three generations, the 1950s, 60s and 70s.” Every contributor was suggested the topic and provided a broad outline. “I asked them to take a look at the current issues and situation and take into account all the positives and negatives and try to project the shape of things in the next 10 years.”
For each contributor he had a back-up of three in his kitty. He chose all of them with great care ensuring they had knowledge and experience on the topic and the area they were writing about. “This imbibed authenticity to the write up,” he points out. A case in point is Meera Shankar who has written on Indo-US relations. She has served as an ambassador in the U.S. as has Kanwal Sibal in Russia who wrote on Indo-Russia affairs.
Kumar joined Indian Foreign Service in 1972 and retired as Secretary, MEA/Dean, Foreign Service Institute in 2008 after having served as ambassador to Mozambique, Eritrea, Democratic Republic of Congo and Libya. Having penned five books, including his memoir, “Beyond Diplomatic Dilemmas”, he places “India and the World…” in a different league. Sipping tomato juice, he says, “When I took up this project I wanted to do something different and unique which would be of use to students, professors, journalists, academics, practitioners, writers and speakers of international relations and even politicians by helping them get the basic information.”
He describes the collection as a “bouquet of flowers” and says “the 33 articles – encompass different styles, different approaches, different phrases, different mindsets, some brutally frank and upfront while some very nuanced, some very diplomatic while some candid. But they are all very well-written articles with a lot of information in them.”
The waft of food brought in by the staff suspends our conversation for a while. As both of us are vegetarians we order palak paneer, channa masala and dum aloo. Kumar opts for missi roti while I go for the plain one. I enquire about the much publicised dinner diplomacy. “The passage to some of the most difficult things in one’s mind goes through one’s stomach. If you have a nice meal with a person you have a nice feeling about him. When I was the consul general in Chicago, I used to entertain 70 people every month in my house. Everything was cooked at home by wife and the Indian cook. It helps you to develop certain informality and a certain trust. A person who comes to your house for dinner spends three hours and he or she tends to develop a degree of trust and that helps a lot,” explains the former diplomat.
Did the Ambassador during his foreign postings have difficulties being a vegetarian? According to him, not in informal dinner since the host being aware of his food preferences would make adequate arrangements. “At times in formal banquets I would have to wait for more than two hours giving a go by to all the non-vegetarian fare and finally eat salad, fruits, desserts and sweets,” he says.
Fond of Chinese and Italian cuisine, Kumar finds the former easy digestible and good for health while he likes the latter for its different taste, flavour and mild spices. But his first choice is Indian food and among them he counts bharva (stuffed) karela, tinda and palak paneer as his favourites. “Like Indian culture, Indian cuisine is difficult to define and describe as it very vast and varied, probably the largest in the world. Each region has its own dishes and items.” Among the south Indian dishes he relishes sambar vada and idli with coconut chutney or sambar.
Praising his wife for her excellent cooking, he remarks, “Even though she is a vegetarian she learnt to cook non-vegetarian food like mutton, fish and chicken besides boneless chicken, rogan josh, kababs both seek and shami, fish cutlet, etc. which we had to offer our guests abroad. She also makes delicious matar paneer, palak paneer, stuffed bhindi and cauliflower. Foreigners used to love the baigan ka bharta prepared by her.” Kumar himself can make gajar ka halwa, kheer, suji halwa, vegetable biryani and navratna korma.
Reminiscing about his service while eating kulfi, Kumar says, “I enjoyed it enormously. Even though I spent two third of my service in very difficult places it gave me a chance to interact with people from different mindset, political systems and cultures giving me an opportunity to serve the country without being in India.” He believes that chest thumping in international relations is of no avail and instead we must concentrate to improve the economy and living standards of the people. Winding up, he expresses optimism about improvement in relations with the immediate neighbours. “I am hopeful and feel that sooner or later we will be able to settle as it is in our mutual interest,” he comments.
