Meetings with remarkable women’ launched | Dr Karan Singh shares fascinating nuggets

New Delhi, Mar 10: It was a brief meeting with Hellen Keller that lasted a few minutes but left a lifelong impression. And it remains etched in his mind as an encounter with ‘an iconic fighter for the cause of the disabled.’ His memorable meeting with Eleanor Roosevelt, whom he describes as the first lady of the United Nations, took place when he was just 17 years of age.

From the depths of his remarkable memory, veteran politician and public figure, Dr Karan Singh has dug out these and many more fascinating nuggets relating to some of his most memorable encounters with women, and put them together in the form of a book ‘Meetings with Remarkable Women’.

Sure to be a collector’s item, the book, in its Hindi edition and a new English edition, was released by the author himself on Saturday evening at Delhi’s India International Centre.

The English version, first published in 2014 as a compilation of his impressions about the remarkable women he had met in his life, has been updated with seven new additions, right down to President Droupadi Murmu. Both the English and Hindi versions are the first publications of the newly formed Karan Singh Foundation in collaboration with Motilal Banarsidass Publishing House.

Speaking at length about the book at the launch event, Dr Karan Singh said, “In the course of my multifarious and varied public life, which began some eight decades ago, I have had occasion in India and abroad to meet a large number of remarkable people and they have left an impression upon my mind.” “Those memories resided in the recesses of my mind till, on the prompting of Jyotsana, my daughter and chairperson of the Karan Singh Foundation, I decided to pen them down,” he revealed.

Many of the women who have found their way to his book were well known around the world, while many were not in the public eye. But, according to the author, “they shared a certain intangible quality which has led me to include them in this book of reminiscences.”

The launch event was attended by a galaxy of dignitaries from different walks of life. It saw an exciting panel discussion between Dr Karan Singh and two remarkable women – Mala Thapar (Malvika Singh), daughter of journalist and political commentator Romesh Thapar, and Ameeta Mehra, daughter of late Major PK Mehra.

The panelists also interacted with the audience on the occasion.