Yesterday morning, my mobile beeped for a message. When I opened it, it was from GN Sinha!
My memory is still fresh and vivid.
It was one of those wet days during summer of 2009 when it was still drizzling; my sister, Jarjum Ete, drove me to GN Sinha’s official residence, to introduce each other. Since then and till today, he remained my silent guide, but more a friend. We shared few commonalities which worked as glue between us till few days back when he was transferred out of Arunachal, after long 24 years, to New Delhi.
Irrespective of his age, he has an innate curiosity like a teenager to know and learn. Not that I claim to be any younger but, age gap between us is substantial but that never stood between us to have hours of discussions and debates on various subjects, over a smoke or peg of whisky, ranging from Verrier Elwin and his philosophies of which he is an ardent follower, to Mukut Mithi’s regime during which he handled multiple assignments including Tourism, Planning, Economics & Statistics, Home, Political & Cabinet Affairs etc.
But, what I could gather over many weeks, months and years of interactions with him, he remained a forest professional to the core- an Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer.
I have been a bitter critic of his last big project- bamboo processing unit at Poma; right from choosing Kamesh Salam, for whom I have no regard and respect and whom I consider to be an outright crook and fraud, as the consultant to purchase of low-grade equipments!
He agreed with couple of my observations but, largely, he maintained his stand over the viability of the project till his last day in Arunachal Pradesh. And, he never ever forget to mention how visionary and goal-driven, Governor General JJ Singh (Retd) is. Thus, at times, I wonder if Bamboo Processing Unit at Poma was the reason for procrastinating his move back to mainland India.
But of late, there were times, when I would get the feeling that with his age catching up and having spent his golden period of life, devoted to the forests of Arunachal; he wanted to move closer to his home, Dehradun.
My gut feeling was offcially confirmed on February 17th evening, when his ‘man-Friday’ came over to my home with a letter inside an envelope, which was not needed though, informing of his official status to move to Delhi for a new assignment as Additional PCCF and Head of Forest and Wildlife, Government of Delhi. In all probability that was for the last time he used government of Arunachal Pradesh letter pad and he seemed in a hurry to finish his stock of letter pads, which would serve no purpose to him any longer!
His letter pad reminds me of an incident.
If my memory serves me right, it was on August 20, 2010 that he was finalizing invitations for the release of his book ‘Strengthening Indian Environment Laws – New Lessons and Approaches’. With his wife, Suranjita, and couple of officers from Forest Corporation, GN was busy tucking the invites; I bumped into his home to notice that they were sending invites in plain A4 papers!
I objected.
I object on the ground that it does not befit the stature of a scholar of his repute with Master in Laws from University of Birmingham, United Kingdom! I was not fooling; that was an honest statement that I blurred out. Thereafter, I tore all the previous invites and printed fresh invites in his letter pads which were available in plenty, that time too. His wife just smiled but he was not amused; not that I cared how he felt.
That was and is our friendship.
He has left Arunachal, his ‘Karam bhoomi’ but, interestingly, his facebook profile says he lives in Itanagar still.
GN, you wish!
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