My Times My Tales - An Introduction of book

As we move through the passage of time, all of us come across one incident or the other on our way, and while most of them slip into oblivion as a passing phase, a few of them cling to us as part of a precious treasure. Such happenings keep lingering in the recesses of our minds aching to be expressed through our fond medium, be it a piece of art, a lyrical composition, a novel or a short story.

Overtaken by desire to express myself on episodes which either touched my inner chords or stirred my sensitivity on matters of relevance to society, I chose to articulate my thoughts and feelings in the form of narratives. My book ‘My Times, My Tales’ is a compilation of 27 such tales which I have articulated to share with learned readers. Long back I was catapulted into travelling by a passenger train which, instead of being irritating, became a memorable journey. And I narrated my experience in my tale ‘Delusion of Appearance’, ‘…. I started enjoying the journey for its leisurely movement, crowded and yet specious. Nobody seemed to be in a hurry, not the train atleast. I could look at the faces that spoke volumes, heard peals of laughter reflecting carefree attitudes, eyes that wept without trickles of tears telling tales of want and misery. It brought me face to face with the bitterness of human existence ………’ But it was for a sharp bitter pill which I had to swallow that day that the journey became memorable.

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On another occasion, while travelling from Kalka to Delhi by Himalayan Queen with friends’ families, I observed the conduct of a limping vendor in the compartment. And the ‘Thud’ ‘Thud’ ‘Thud’ sound that I heard there kept reverberating in my mind for a long time because it was the sound of self-respect. ‘….. As he moved…. with his head held high, I could not take my eyes off him. …..Famous philosopher , Henry Ward Beecher, perhaps had this proud man in mind when he uttered his famous words: It is the heart that makes a man rich. He is rich according to what he is, not according to what he has.’ In the tale ‘My Encounter with Ghosts’, I have narrated an incident that would have left me a die-hard believer in the existence of ghosts but for timely disclosure. ‘…….As I entered the labyrinth of the old market complex, my bicycle suddenly came to a grinding halt, as if stopped from behind….I quickly checked the bicycle and found nothing wrong…..I was already jittery ….I looked around like a dove caught between hounds . The more I thought, the more I felt the horror of the rhythmic steps of ghosts dancing around me with mocking gestures…….’

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Now, having lived in Delhi for decades, I have no hesitation to admit what I have stated in my satirical narration, ‘Delhi: Paradise of Spirituality’, ‘….it occurs to me at times that great saints whose quest for eternal truth took them to the difficult terrain of Himalayas to undertake extreme penance for attaining eternal salvation, the ‘Moksha’, only wasted their time and energy . They could have easily achieved their spiritual goals if they had lived in Delhi as a common man………. Every time I have to go a medical practitioner, I come back with an experience that forces me to recall doctors of my childhood days. The extract from the write up ‘Dr Commonsense’ indicates the reason ‘…..there were many in those days like Dr Shambhoo Nath whose primitive style of treating patients, based on their extraordinary level of commonsense , was tolerated because it made up considerably for modern day technological advancement and over commercialization of the profession ….’

And every time I read in the newspaper report about parents taking a teacher to task for having

punished their child, I cannot not help recalling my school days, for, in my mind, there linger the words of my mother about the attitude of my father as narrated in the story ‘The Sweet Bitter Pill’ “…..He deliberately thrust the bitter pill down your throat …... He was least bothered whether the teacher was right or wrong … …He never wanted his children to grow disrespectful and impertinent towards their teachers whom he placed on a much higher pedestal than even the parents….’ Then there is the story of ‘ An Angelic Commoner’ about whom the more I thought the more I became convinced that while there is enough of depravity to lead one to sink deep down to unfathomable depth of dirt, there is no dearth of goodness as well that touches the topless tower to beacon the earth with its sharp soothing brightness .

There is also an interesting story that narrates the journey of a simple ring which becomes fascinating ‘cosmic joke’ perpetuated with macabre sense of humour. And in the same veins have been written some other tales like ‘An Unusual Burden’ and ‘Bags of laughter’.

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There are many more in the book, each one with a different colour and flavour as I have endeavoured hard to treat them with utmost care and felicity to sustain readers’ interest.

About Dinesh Narain Verma and his Book My Times My Tales

Full name : Dinesh Narain Verma

Formal name : D.N.Verma

Name as author : Dinesh.N.Verma

Address: 71-C, pocket-3,

                 Mayur Vihar , phase -1,                                                            Delhi- 110091

Telephone: Mobile: 9818089504

E-mail ID: dineshnarain.verma@gmail.com

                  : d_n_verma@yahoo.co.in

Blog : khushdilverma.blogspot.com

Follow us:- https://www.facebook.com/dineshnarainverma

About myself: After obtaining Masters degree in English and completing LLB from Agra University I joined the bar at my home town Bareilly(U.P) and left it in 1966 to join service in Government of India at Delhi.

In the Service of Government of India:

Joined Central Information Service , Government of India, (later called IIS, Indian Information Service) at Delhi in 1966 and was initially exposed to 15 months course on ‘Theory and Practice of Communication’ at Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi which involved intensive practical training through attachments with media units of Ministry of Information & broadcasting including Press Information Bureau, All India Radio, Directorate of Field Publicity, Publications Division, Films Division and Photo Division . I was also attached for a couple months to Daily ‘The Pioneer’, then an eminent English newspaper of Lucknow.

On completion of training, I had my first posting at Dehradun as Field Publicity Officer and later, the second one, at Aligarh. Before posting as Deputy Director, Directorate of Field Publicity, at Delhi, I had a stint of four years of deputation as Assistant Director (Publicity) at Indian Grain Storage Institute (IGSI), Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Hapur. On repatriation back to Ministry, I took charge in the research cell of the Exhibition Wing of Directorate of Advertising & Visual Publicity (DAVP). Later I took up the position as Joint Director (Advertising) in DAVP where I got further elevated to the position of Director. I stayed in DAVP for nine years holding charge in different capacities overseeing functioning of different wings including Printed Publicity, Exhibitions, Audio Visual, Campaigns, Accounts and Administration. I superannuated from Government in June 2000 after completing service for 34 years.

After Retirement:

Visiting lecturer on media

After retirement, I continued my links with media institutes in Delhi and Noida as visiting lecturer and these included Indian Institute of Mass communication where, apart from taking lectures for in house IIS trainees of the Ministry, I took up classes for trainees in journalism with focus on functioning of the Government media: government’s Information, Publicity and Public Relations System .

Joined Bar at Delhi

Simultaneously, I Joined Bar at Delhi and remained associated with a reputed law firm, Aggarwal & Associates, for around two years. And then, I took up position of legal Advisor in a company that dealt in techno-legal aspects of ‘Intellectual Property Rights’.

Engagement in Creative Writings

All this while I continued meddling with pen and paper and kept writing articles, stories and write ups some of which I published in my blog and a few found space in some newspapers. Brief relating to my writing work is given below:

Book on sale My Times My Tales is my book which was published in 2016 by Peoples Syndicate Pvt Ltd. It comprised narration of 27 stories and write-ups on varied aspects of life. An extract from the preface to the book sums up the essence of this book which has gone in the press for the second time and is also available with Amazon.in.

‘Whatever else life may be, it certainly is not a smooth sail for a common man; nay, not even for those who we think are uncommon and special. We have our highs and lows, and, as we move ahead, crossing one milestone after another, we come across on way pleasant and unpleasant situations and events that leave a lasting impact on our minds. These write ups are the result of an effort prompted by my desire to peep into the vicissitudes of life and capriciousness of human nature through the incidents and episodes that I have witnessed and encountered in course of my journey from Bareilly, a small town in U.P. to the bustling metropolis of Delhi ……..’

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Books in pipeline

1) A novel in English under the tentative title ‘On a Bewitching Dreamland’.

2) ‘Commentary’ under title ‘Bhagavad Gita and the Common man’, the objective being to provide a simplified interpretation of tenets of the philosophy as relevant to life which can be easily understood, absorbed and assimilated by a common reader. This I initiated after I had completed translation of an exhaustive commentary on Bhagawad Gita (AS IT IS) by a learned scholar of Mathura from Hindi to English which I did as a gesture of good will .

3) The narratives which were published in newspapers are :

a) Flowers of Friction - The Hindustan Times, Delhi, November 23, 1995

b) Encounter with Ghosts- The Pioneer, Delhi,September15, 1995

c) Limping Dignity- The Pioneer, Delhi, Sept 2000 (Destination India)

4) After success of my published book, I have initiated work on a project treating nostalgia of the elderly people as a precious bridge between the past and the future for maintaining continuity of the cultural ethos of the country. This will be a collection my writings in the same pattern as has been that of the book published under the title MY Times My Tales,

5) In view of changing media scene , I have initiated research to undertake a project for writing a book on ‘Government Information and Publicity System’ as it exists today on the face of dozens of private 24x7 television channels and mushrooming of newspapers and periodicals in the country.

6) I have completed a considerable part of a book , tentatively titled ‘ India as Seen Through Eyes of a Common Man’. It is an exercise in locating grey shades all along the shimmering glitters of a shining India in course of its strides since Independence. To give an idea about the effort , I reproduced below an extract from the draft -preface to the book that ,I believe , carries the spirit of India as seen through the eyes of a common man:

“…………………..I, as a common man, during the last over six decades, have been a witness to the construction of a ‘house’ called India , with features that certainly makes it magnificent and, perhaps, as grand a house as many developed countries of the world are. But, I have also been watching with anxiety, the gradual and simultaneous crumbling of every thing that makes a ‘home’, despite our entire claim to our rich cultural heritage and healthy traditions. It leaves me worried that if the house and the home do not fuse together to become an inseparable home in the near future, will this magnificent house still be able to hold itself, despite our loud claim to the cultural strength and strong fibre of value system…….

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“We have had enough from the pen of established intellectuals and columnist. It is now my turn, as a common man, to look at things from the bottom, shorn of the heaps of statistics and recount in actual terms the experiences to find out where we stand after over six decades of independence …….”

Know who is Dinesh Narain Verma

Dinesh Narain Verma
71-C, pocket-3,
Mayur Vihar, phase -1,
Delhi- 110091
Telephone: Mobile: 9818089504
Blog : khushdilverma.blogspot.com
E-mail ID: dineshnarain.verma@gmail.com
: d_n_verma@yahoo.co.in
Follow us:- https://www.facebook.com/dineshnarainverma




Dinesh. N. Verma, is a retired Central Government officer who served different media units of the Ministry of I&B in different capacities as member of the Indian Information service. He continued after his retirement as visiting lecturer to Indian Institute of Mass communication and other media Institutes for trainees of media and journalism with focus on functioning of the Government media, publicity and public relations. Prior to joining Government, he had started as lawyer in Bareilly, UP, the profession that he readily picked up after his superannuation by joining the Bar in Delhi and specialized in the field of Intellectual property rights.

All this while, he kept writing. While the present compilation was one area that he chose for his creative expression, he remained engaged in translating in English a commentary on Bhagwad Gita for an eminent scholar and later initiated writing his own commentary under the title ‘Gita and the Commonman’ along with some other writing projects currently in hand.

Coming books
1. Philosophic side of a govt servant
2. A handbook of govt media system