My Father: The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man
About this ebook
Baloo Lal was born in a remote village in Rajasthan, in a family that could not scrape together two full meals a day. He lost his father at five and mother at fourteen. The village lacked even a primary school. Yet, thanks to the wisdom and sacrifice of his mother and his own perseverance, he completed his education, went on to serve with distinction as a civil servant in the newly formed state of Rajasthan and, after retirement, wrote the first definitive book on the history of the freedom movement in Rajasthan.
In a very real sense, Baloo Lal's journey from the village of Suwana to the city of Jaipur was a long and arduous one, much more so than that of his own son, decades later from Jaipur to Washington, DC. His success led to more milestones in the next generation, with two of his children being honoured with Padma awards and another with a presidential award.
My Father: The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man adds a new dimension to the history of India. It is a reminder that post-independence India was built not just by a handful of leaders working at the top but numerous ordinary citizens who shaped its many contours from below.
About the author
Arvind Panagariya is a professor of economics and the Jagdish Bhagwati Professor of Indian Political Economy at Columbia University. He is also the Director of the Raj Center on Indian Economic Policies at Columbia University. He served as the first vice-chairman of the NITI Aayog from January 2015 to August 2017. He is the author of more than fifteen books, among them India's Tryst with Destiny with Jagdish Bhagwati, which has been called 'a manifesto for policymakers and analysts'. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 2012.
