• ISBN13: 9789391125325
• Binding: Hardcover
• Subject: General Books
• Publisher: Niyogi Books
• Publisher Imprint: Niyogi Books
• Publication Date: October 16, 2022
• Pages: 340
• Original Price: INR 650.0
• Language: English
• Edition: N/A
• Item Weight: 448 grams
• BISAC Subject(s): General

During the early decades post India's independence, Moosa Raza, a young IAS officer hailing from a small village in Tamil Nadu, was tasked with governing huge, diverse and complex territories in the newly formed state of Gujarat.Raza had the distinction of heading four districts (todays' seven) as district magistrate and collector in Gujarat, and rose to become principal secretary to the chief minister of Gujarat. This book is an elaborately layered account of Raza's experiences and encounters with maharajas, politicians, tribals, tigers and a variety of other inhabitants of the country. With tongue-in-cheek humour, Raza details his head-on collisions with public figures, gold smugglers and bureaucrats, and his attempts to deal with them with tact while trying to hold his own. Raza describes well-known figures, including C.V. Raman, Morarji Desai, Indira Gandhi and others, with a lot of wit, honesty and empathy-they live again in these pages.

Raza, Moosa: - Moosa Raza was born and brought up in a village in Tamil Nadu that had no electricity, no running water, no flush system and no doors to any house. During the first nine years of his life, he did not know the English alphabet and only learnt rudimentary Urdu. Today he writes poetry in English, Hindi, Urdu, Persian and Arabic. He has already published five books, including two collections of Urdu poems.An IAS officer of the 1960 cadre, he rose to become a chief secretary of the state of Jammu and Kashmir and secretary to the Government of India. After retirement, he heads a large educational trust with 10,000 students, 600 academic and managerial staff and is the chairman of several private-sector enterprises in Mumbai. He continues to work and write even in his 80s and is deeply committed to the affairs of the nation.