Up, close and personal: scenes from a diplomat’s life
India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru took a great interest in foreign policy and the officers chosen for a career in the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) were given an audience with him. And this is the moment with which Pascal Alan Nazareth, a former ambassador who entered the service in 1959, chooses to start his memoir, A Ringside Seat to History. “A diplomat should not lie but there is no obligation on his part to tell the truth either,” was what Nehru told him. While he may have followed that advice during his career, his memoir doesn’t shy away from the awkward situations he found himself in during his 35-year career.
Tagged with: diplomat, social service
