Pran Nath Neville

Sitting across Pran Nath Neville, in my parent’s drawing room, made me realize that he seemed so much at home; considering that our two countries are daggers drawn at the political front. But his seeming at home can also stem from the fact that he was and is a blue blooded Lahori to the core: Lahore being his birthplace and where he studied during his formative years. His ease of manner soon had us all engaged and we had a lively evening together: he reminiscing about his childhood memories and we asking questions about whatever came into our heads at that time.

Now I know you all must be wondering what Pran sahib was doing in our house? It so happens that he was my maternal grandfather's (Saeed Ahmad Khan) best friend in college (Government College, Lahore) and their friendship transcended the boundaries erected by partition. Pran Sahib, told us that he had always wanted to write a book about his memories of Lahore and whenever he visited Pakistan, he always bypassed Lahore and instead went to Karachi so that his memories of the city he remembered remained untainted for the time he could write a book on it. In the late 1980s he heard from somewhere that his friend my grandfather had died so this spurred him to write Lahore, A Sentimental Journey, which he dedicated to his late friend (nana). But as luck would have it was not my grandfather who had died but his younger brother. After the book got published Pran Sahab visited Lahore and asked an old friend that he wanted to meet Saeeds family; still thinking that his friend was no more. The mutual friend located nana and informed him that his old friend was coming to meet him in a few minutes. Pran Sahab couldn't contain his excitement and the friendship eventually culminated in an epic reunion. He presented nana with a copy of his book but not before tearing the dedication page. This episode has been immortalized in the recent edition of this book, published by Oxford University Press.

Pran Neville was born in Lahore and took his post graduate degree from Government College. He had a distinguished career in the Indian Foreign Service and the United Nations. During his tenure he was posted in Japan, Poland and Yugoslavia, former USSR and USA. He was also Director of the State Trading Corporation; and in-charge of 7 countries in East Europe. His last posting was Consul General of India in Chicago. He also did a six year tenure as Program Coordinator with UNCTAD in Geneva looking after East Europe. His Specialization has been in trade with Commonwealth Countries that include East Europe and former USSR. After retirement, he turned a freelance writer and specializes in the study of Indian art and culture.

His particular fascination with the performing arts inspired him to spend nearly seven years researching in the libraries and museums of England and the U.S.A. to enable him produce the sumptuously illustrated 'Nautch Girls of India' in 1996. Highly acclaimed by the media it was considered to be a pioneering work on the subject of dance and music as well as their practitioners through the centuries. Neville has written extensively for Indian newspapers and journals. He is the author of other well known books such as 'Lahore - A Sentimental Journey', 'Love Stories from the Raj', 'Rare Glimpses of the Raj', 'Beyond the Veil - Indian Women in the Raj', 'Stories from the Raj - Sahibs, Memsahibs and others', K.L. Saigal - Immortal singer and superstar and lastly 'Marvels of Indian Painting - Rise and Demise of Company School'.

He has been invited by several institutions in India and also universities in England and U.S.A. to speak on themes related to Indian art and culture. He has also acted as a consultant for two BBC documentaries on the Raj viz. 'Ruling Passions' and 'The Land of Kama sutra'. Pran Nevile is the

founder and convener of the 'KL Saigal Memorial Circle, which is dedicated to remembering Singers of yesteryears.

We had heard a lot about him from our grandfather and were in awe of his personality always secretly cherishing a desire to meet him one day. I remember our Lahori cousins bragging that they had met him in person before us. So it was a dream come true when suddenly out of the blue my younger sister got an email from his great-granddaughter-in-law that he was in Pakistan and he wanted to meet us. He had been invited by the Pakistan Academy of letters, to read a few papers in the Sufi conference held in Islamabad a few weeks ago. We were so excited and started preparing a feast for him: haleem, egg sandwiches, chicken bread forgetting his religious belief but thank god the dahi baras and samosas saved the day. But being the perfect gentleman he did not offend our sensibilities even once.

Being a learned person that he is it was so easy talking to him because he has that natural flair to put the other person at ease with his charm and affability. He talked about his childhood, his friendship with nana and how he missed his birthplace with so much feeling that it was hard to imagine that he was a visitor from across the border. It was a pleasure talking to him and it felt as if time had grown wings that day. He had missed his luncheon appointment to meet up with us but he could not miss his dinner engagement because it was with an old friend.

His personality exuded so much warmth and he was so happy to meet all of us because we were the offspring of his late friend that we felt overwhelmed by this once in a lifetime encounter. Promising to keep in touch by writing letters (because he likes the idea of snail mail rather than email) he left us with memories of a memorable evening spent together.

(Publication Date: September 2010

Publication Name: Life with World Call)