JOURNEYING WITH INDIA, MEMOIRS OF A CIVIL SERVANT (HARDCOVER)
Y N Varma rose from modest beginnings in a village in the Faizabad/Ayodhya district to become one of India's most senior bureaucrats. He joined the Provincial Civil Service in 1936 and worked in the districts with some extraordinary. . . sometimes extraordinarily eccentric. . . British Collectors. During the Quit India movement, he struck a difficult balance between nationalistic sentiment and the duties of governance. He witnessed the tragedy of Partition and worked for the rehabilitation of refugees. Immediately after Independence, as Home Secretary of Delhi, he was instrumental in setting up the state's administration, and supervised the building of the Tis Hazari courts and Tihar Jail. In the mid 1950s, he managed the Indian Airlines Corporation, and in the '60s, he was Director General of All India Radio.