The Literary Diplomat
By
Ambica Gulati
Navtej Sarna (IFS Retd)
Navtej Sarna (IFS Retd)
A gracious diplomat and award-winning author, Navtej Sarna exudes charm and wit. His upright walk and gentle stance belie his sixty-seven years. There is an endearing agelessness about him as we talk about his life over lunch at New Delhi’s popular India International Centre.
Sarna’s diplomatic career is a well-woven tapestry, making him an explorer, a learner, and a creator of words. This thirty-eight-year-long career took him across the globe: from Moscow to Warsaw, Tehran, Bhutan, Geneva, UK, and USA just to name a few of his postings.
His historical novel, Crimson Spring, won the Kalinga Literary Festival Fiction Book Award 2022. It was also longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award and JCB Prize for Literature for 2022.
Sarna retired from the Indian Foreign Service in 2018, his last posting being India’s ambassador to the United States of America. An expert on foreign policy and literary and cultural matters, he credits his amazing experiences to ‘an open mind in life’ that makes every moment in life a pleasant experience.
Besides being at the helm of important missions as ambassador to the USA, high commissioner to the UK, and ambassador to Israel, Sarna has held critical portfolios at headquarters where he worked as secretary to the Government of India and as the longest-serving spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs.
Browsing through his website, navtejsarna.in, I discovered that his creative writings gained momentum with his postings across the globe. The prolific wordsmith has authored ten fiction and non-fiction books and continues to contribute to journals and magazines both in India and abroad.
Childhood Days
Like many Indians, his grandparents and parents came to India post Partition in 1947. His maternal grandfather, Sardar Nidhan Singh Sachar was a manager in the Military Dairy Farms, an institution that has now wound up. He was posted in Jalandhar, and that is where Navtej was born in 1957 to Punjabi litterateurs Mohinder Singh Sarna and Surjit Sarna.
Navtej with his parents Mohinder Singh Sarna and Surjit Sarna.
However, Jalandhar cantonment area with its sprawling gardens and big houses was not where young Navtej spent his childhood. ‘I never went there after my birth, but this is how Jalandhar came into my life or I came into life in Jalandhar,’ he smiles. ‘My father’s family had come from West Punjab, now in Pakistan, during the Partition. It was a traumatic time. Their lives were disrupted in every which way. My father lost his sister in the Partition. Like all the others who had come across the border, our families too had to rebuild their lives.
My paternal grandfather, Sardar Bhagwan Singh Sarna was a manager at the Punjab & Sind Bank in Rawalpindi. He had earlier worked for the irrigation department during the building of the Punjab canals. He had been actively involved in the Gurdwara Reform Movement and the Akali Movement. This deeply influenced the entire household, including my father and uncles,’ says Sarna.
‘My newly married dadi, Satwant Kaur, also went headlong into this movement. She would recount tales of the morchas (protests) and the beatings the Akalis took during their non-violent protests,’ he adds. ‘My mother’s studies were disrupted due to the upheaval caused by the Partition. Eventually, she completed her double MA in Punjabi and English.’
Sarna’s parents got married in 1950. Overcoming the turmoil of being uprooted, his father cleared the entry examination for the Indian Audit and Accounts Service in 1951, from which he retired in 1981. At the time of Partition, he had been working at the Army Headquarters.
