Four Decades Through Thick & Thin: Musings of a Diplomat Part One - Persian Gulf

By N Sreenivasan

The author is a retired Indian Foreign Service career diplomat and the series captures vivid experiences from his four decades of service. In this book, the author traces the start of his career as a young man from south India crossing the seas to begin his career in the British-administered states of the Persian gulf. The book takes one back to an era when oil was just being discovered and the war was not yet over.

• Language: English
• Publisher: N Sreenivasan
• Release date: Dec 23, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301558131

N Sreenivasan

Mr. N. Sreenivasan was born in Kumbhakonam, Tamil Nadu, India as the eldest son of Sri S. Narayanaswamy Iyer and Smt. Rajammal. His father was an educationist and philanthropist in the town of Nagapattinam. In 1944, Mr. Sreenivasan joined the Persian Gulf cadre of the Government of then, British India. He continued as an Indian career diplomat after Indian Independence, serving in Iran, Germany, the USSR, the USA, Bulgaria, Egypt and Finland. Since retirement in 1986, Mr. Sreenivasan lives in Chennai, India. He is an avid raconteur with an elephantine memory, who brings back to life memories of a diplomatic career, with vividness and humour.In the early morning of 28th June 2017, 3 weeks before his 91st birthday, Mr. Sreenivasan departed for his heavenly abode.

Book preview

Four Decades through Thick & Thin – Musings of a Diplomat

Part 1 – The Persian Gulf

By Narayanaswamy Sreenivasan

Copyright 2012 Narayanaswamy Sreenivasan

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***

Dedicated to the memory of my respected and revered father,

S. N.

(S. Narayanaswamy Iyer)

2.July.1899 - 1.July.1966

Principal, S. N. Tutorial Home (1943 - 1966)

Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu, India

and

Architect and moving spirit behind the National High School, Nagapattinam

***

Table of Contents

Foreword

Maiden Voyage (June 1944)

Salad Days In Bushire (August 1944)

Independence In Bahrain (1945 - 1948)

Snippets

Photograph Gallery

FOREWORD

October 2011, Chennai, India

Four Decades - Through Thick and Thin, is the result of repeated suggestions by Dr. N. M. Samuel, W.H.O.’s former Director for Asia, who became our family doctor from 1985. He hails from a family of ardent patriots, his father was a sworn Congressman. The good doctor used to engage me in conversation pertaining to my service experiences (often keeping other patients waiting). He wished that I recorded those experiences for the benefit of both present and coming generations.

Professor Dr. S. Vaithianathan, former Head of Cardiology in the Madras Medical College and Civil Surgeon in the Government General Hospital, took charge of us after Dr. Samuel closed down his Canon Baboo Medical Centre in Chennai. Dr. Vaithianathan, after retirement, was only attending to two patients in the morning and two in the evening in his private clinic. A most amiable, kind and considerate person, he would head straight to the root cause of the ailment and prescribe minimum necessary medication. He also got interested in hearing about my service experiences and would ask me to be the second patient in the evening so that we could talk more. It is on his persistent goading that I finally started recording those experiences, which would not have been possible but for the full cooperation of my elder son, Chandrasekhar (Sekhar) who is based in Finland. During his sojourns in Chennai,