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Pavan Varma

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Pavan Varma
Varma speaking at a book launch in Nehru Centre, London, in 2005, when he was its director
Indian High Commissioner to Cyprus
In office
8 August 2001 – 23 January 2004
Preceded byShyamala Balasubramanian Cowsik
Succeeded byNeelam D. Sabharwal
Indian Ambassador to Bhutan
In office
2009–2013
Preceded bySudhir Vyas
Succeeded byVirupakshan Pranatharthi Haran
MP of Rajya Sabha for Bihar
In office
23 June 2014 – 7 July 2016
General Secretary of Janata Dal (United)
In office
10 November 2016 – Incumbent
Personal details
Born (1953-11-05) 5 November 1953 (age 70)
Nagpur[1]

Pavan K. Varma (born 5 November 1953) is a former Indian Foreign Service officer and was an adviser to the Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar, with cabinet rank.[2] With effect from June, 2014 he was a Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) until July 2016. He is currently the National General Secretary and National Spokesman of the Janata Dal (United).

Biography

Varma is a graduate of St. Stephen’s College, New Delhi where he studied History (Honours) and received the first position. He was President of the St. Stephen’s College Debating Society as well as the star debater and elocutionist of the University of Delhi. He also won the Sir CP Ramaswamy Aiyar Memorial Essay Prize at St. Stephen’s. Subsequently, he acquired a degree in Law from the University of Delhi.

He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1976. His career as a diplomat has seen him serve in several locations, including New York and Moscow. In New York, he was with India’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations. He also served as Executive Assistant to the Chairman of the Group of 77. In Moscow, he was the Director of the Jawaharlal Nehru Cultural Centre in the Indian Embassy. He was High Commissioner of India to Cyprus as well as the first IFS officer to be selected as the Director of the prestigious Nehru Centre in London. His assignments in India include that of Press Secretary to the President of India, Spokesman in the Ministry of External Affairs, Joint Secretary for Africa and Director General of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, New Delhi. Varma was the Ambassador of India to Bhutan.

After retiring from the Foreign Service in January, 2013, Varma became a culture adviser to the Chief Minister of Bihar.[3] He is currently the National General Secretary and National Spokesman of the Janata Dal (United).[4] Varma lives in Delhi. Pavan writes columns for Asian Age, Times of India.[5] Prabhat Khabar.

Bibliography

Fiction

  • Pavan K. Varma (2012). When Loss is Gain. Rain Tree. ISBN 978-81-291-1941-4.

Non-fiction

  • Pavan K. Varma (1989). Ghalib, the man, the times. Viking.
  • Pavan K. Varma (1992). Havelis of Old Delhi. Bookwise (India).
  • Pavan K. Varma (1993). Krishna, the playful divine. Viking.
  • Pavan K. Varma (1996). Yudhishtar and Draupadi. Penguin Books India.
  • Pavan K. Varma (1998). The great Indian middle class. Viking.
  • Pavan K. Varma (1 April 2004). Being Indian: the truth about why the twenty-first century will be India's. Viking.
  • Pavan K. Varma; Sandhya Mulchandani (1 June 2004). Love and lust: an anthology of erotic literature from ancient and medieval India. HarperCollins Publishers a joint venture with India Today Group.
  • Pavan K. Varma (1 February 2007). Kamasutra: The Art of Making Love to a Woman. Roli Books Private, Limited. ISBN 978-81-7436-448-7.
  • Pavan K. Varma (2010). Becoming Indian: The Unfinished Revolution of Culture and Identity. Penguin Books India. ISBN 978-0-670-08346-6.

As a sequel to The Great Indian Middle Class in 1998, he, in association with journalist Renuka Khandekar, published Maximize Your Life: An Action Plan for the Indian Middle Class (Viking 2000). His 2004 Being Indian was published by William Heinemann, in the United Kingdom, as Being Indian: Inside the Real India in March 2005.

He is currently writing a book on Adi Shankaracharya (788-820 CE), one of the greatest minds India has produced.

Translations

  • Selected Poems: Kaifi Azmi (Viking/Penguin 2001) is the English translation of the Urdu poems of Kaifi Azmi.
  • 21 Poems (Viking/Penguin), a translation in English of the Hindi poems of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the then Prime Minister of India, was published in December 2001.
  • Selected Poems: Gulzar (Penguin) a translated collection of the poems of Gulzar into English, one of India’s best-known poets, came out in April 2008.
  • Neglected Poems, Pavan K. Varma’s second volume of the English translations of Gulzar’s poems was launched at the Jaipur Literary Festival in January 2012.
  • Green Poems: Gulzar, (Penguin, 2014) Pavan K. Varma's third volume of the English translation of Gulzar's poems.
  • Suspected Poems: Gulzar, (Penguin, 2017) Pavan K. Varma's fourth volume of the English translation of Gulzar's poems.

References

  1. ^ india.gov, [1]
  2. ^ "A quick change". Mail Today. 21 January 2013. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
  3. ^ Thakur, Sankarshan (1 November 2012). "A Chanakya for Team Nitish". The Telegraph. India. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
  4. ^ "Pavan Varma biography". Difficult Dialogues. 2016.
  5. ^ "rescue Hinduism faith".
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