Readers' Forum
“The politician”
It was apparent to me that "The politician” mentioned cryptically by Berjis Desai was none other than Hormusjee (Homi) J. H. Taleyarkhan (Unforgettable Bawas, Parsiana, December 21, 2017). I had met Taleyarkhan a few times when he was the Indian Ambassador to Rome (Italy) and served as Indian Ambassador to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) also based in Rome. At that time, in the mid 1980s, I was employed by FAO Rome as plant collector for South Asia and Indian Oceans Islands.
Wearing his white Nehru topi and Indian suit, Taleyarkhan was always stern-faced when I happened to bump into him when going up the lift of the eight-storey marble building in which the FAO is housed. The H-shaped solid stone building was constructed by Benito Mussolini in the 1930s for housing his government ministries, but his downfall came before it could be put to use. The Italian Government then offered it to the UN to house its expanding food and agriculture offices in 1948.
As related by Taleyarkhan, when he was India’s Ambassador to Libya (1971-1977), the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi insisted that Taleyarkhan’s official car display the Libyan flag and not the Indian one. To the credit of Taleyarkhan, the Indian Ambassador refused to abide and continued to fly the Indian flag on his official car. Gaddafi also had another strange trait, which was to telephone Taleyarkhan to meet him for discussions in his tent in the Libyan desert, miles away from Tripoli. Particularly annoying was the calls that came at 2 a.m.! But the Ambassador went all the same.
Dr ARDESHIR B. DAMANIA
Davis, California
abdamania@yahoo.com
Wearing his white Nehru topi and Indian suit, Taleyarkhan was always stern-faced when I happened to bump into him when going up the lift of the eight-storey marble building in which the FAO is housed. The H-shaped solid stone building was constructed by Benito Mussolini in the 1930s for housing his government ministries, but his downfall came before it could be put to use. The Italian Government then offered it to the UN to house its expanding food and agriculture offices in 1948.
As related by Taleyarkhan, when he was India’s Ambassador to Libya (1971-1977), the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi insisted that Taleyarkhan’s official car display the Libyan flag and not the Indian one. To the credit of Taleyarkhan, the Indian Ambassador refused to abide and continued to fly the Indian flag on his official car. Gaddafi also had another strange trait, which was to telephone Taleyarkhan to meet him for discussions in his tent in the Libyan desert, miles away from Tripoli. Particularly annoying was the calls that came at 2 a.m.! But the Ambassador went all the same.
Dr ARDESHIR B. DAMANIA
Davis, California
abdamania@yahoo.com
◆ ◆ ◆
From the archive