<p>Jawaharlal Nehru was a man of the people and of many gifts and achievements, says veteran author Ruskin Bond in his new book and describes Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a man of humble beginnings, whose political acumen and yogic willpower have brought him to the top. </p>.<p>In "A Little Book of India: Celebrating 75 Years of Independence", Bond draws on his own memories and impressions to pay homage to the country that has been his home for 84 years.</p>.<p>"We have had many outstanding prime ministers - Nehru, Shastri, Indira Gandhi, A B Vajpayee, Manmohan Singh, many others - and now Narendra Modi, a man of humble beginnings, whose political acumen, natural sagacity, and yogic willpower have brought him to the top and kept him there through two general elections," he writes. </p>.<p>Bond, who was a schoolboy when India won independence, recalls how the tricolour was hoisted and the Union Jack came down at his boarding school in Shimla.</p>.<p>He also talks about Nehru's iconic speech saying it was a "reflection of his knowledge of world affairs and his familiarity with the English language".</p>.<p>Nehru, for Bond, was a "dapper individual, almost always to be seen with a red rose in his buttonhole. He had been to an English public school and University and spoke and wrote fluently in English. He was a westernised Indian, but also a man of the people. He loved the crowds and addressed with them enthusiasm".</p>.<p>Bond also says that Nehru was impatient of security and frequently gave a slip to his bodyguards.</p>.<p>"One of them, an ex-bodyguard, who met me around 1960, said: 'I had a hard time keeping up with him. He kept darting off in unexpected directions. I lost weight running after Pandit Nehru'. When I met this gentleman, he was putting on weight, relieved at having passed on his duties to another bodyguard," he writes in the book, published by Penguin Random House India.</p>.<p>According to Bond, the Nehru years were, by and large, peaceful and placid years with India beginning to make its influence felt in the international arena as a champion of non-alignment.</p>.<p>"We were on good terms with both Russia and the US and China was looked upon as a special friend."</p>.<p>Bond calls Nehru a man of many gifts and achievements, and his literary works - "An Autobiography" and "Discovery of India" remain with us as monuments to his achievements.</p>.<p>He describes Indira Gandhi as a strong leader who had no hesitation in sending the Indian Army into East Pakistan and helping to bring about the creation of Bangladesh.</p>.<p>"But her premiership was marked by many upheavals - an Emergency of almost two years duration, during which most of her political opponents were imprisoned, along with outspoken critics," Bond writes.</p>.<p>On Rajiv Gandhi, he says though he "did not have a political background, but he did his best, with the aid of his well-wishers and his supportive wife - until he too fell to an assassin's suicide bomb, the tragic outcome of his efforts to bring about a solution to the civil war in Sri Lanka".</p>.<p>Atal Bihari Vajpayee, according to Bond, was a modest and thoughtful man and the BJP's man of the moment.</p>.<p>"A few years before he had become prime minister, I had seen him walking down Mussoorie's Landour bazaar, accompanied by just one or two companions, chatting to shopkeepers and others without any pretensions or desire for show.</p>.<p>"When the BJP came to power, that same modesty, courtesy, and air of deliberation, made him a prime minister very different from his predecessors; a man who could, in many ways, identify with the aspirations of the people," he writes.</p>.<p>In the book, Bond also talks about the diverse elements of India - its rivers and forests, literature and culture, sights, sounds and colours.</p>.<p>"This little book does not claim to be a political or historical analysis of events, although I have dwelt on the highlights of the last 75 years of India's progress to maturity as a nation," he says.</p>.<p><strong>Watch latest videos by DH here:</strong></p>
<p>Jawaharlal Nehru was a man of the people and of many gifts and achievements, says veteran author Ruskin Bond in his new book and describes Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a man of humble beginnings, whose political acumen and yogic willpower have brought him to the top. </p>.<p>In "A Little Book of India: Celebrating 75 Years of Independence", Bond draws on his own memories and impressions to pay homage to the country that has been his home for 84 years.</p>.<p>"We have had many outstanding prime ministers - Nehru, Shastri, Indira Gandhi, A B Vajpayee, Manmohan Singh, many others - and now Narendra Modi, a man of humble beginnings, whose political acumen, natural sagacity, and yogic willpower have brought him to the top and kept him there through two general elections," he writes. </p>.<p>Bond, who was a schoolboy when India won independence, recalls how the tricolour was hoisted and the Union Jack came down at his boarding school in Shimla.</p>.<p>He also talks about Nehru's iconic speech saying it was a "reflection of his knowledge of world affairs and his familiarity with the English language".</p>.<p>Nehru, for Bond, was a "dapper individual, almost always to be seen with a red rose in his buttonhole. He had been to an English public school and University and spoke and wrote fluently in English. He was a westernised Indian, but also a man of the people. He loved the crowds and addressed with them enthusiasm".</p>.<p>Bond also says that Nehru was impatient of security and frequently gave a slip to his bodyguards.</p>.<p>"One of them, an ex-bodyguard, who met me around 1960, said: 'I had a hard time keeping up with him. He kept darting off in unexpected directions. I lost weight running after Pandit Nehru'. When I met this gentleman, he was putting on weight, relieved at having passed on his duties to another bodyguard," he writes in the book, published by Penguin Random House India.</p>.<p>According to Bond, the Nehru years were, by and large, peaceful and placid years with India beginning to make its influence felt in the international arena as a champion of non-alignment.</p>.<p>"We were on good terms with both Russia and the US and China was looked upon as a special friend."</p>.<p>Bond calls Nehru a man of many gifts and achievements, and his literary works - "An Autobiography" and "Discovery of India" remain with us as monuments to his achievements.</p>.<p>He describes Indira Gandhi as a strong leader who had no hesitation in sending the Indian Army into East Pakistan and helping to bring about the creation of Bangladesh.</p>.<p>"But her premiership was marked by many upheavals - an Emergency of almost two years duration, during which most of her political opponents were imprisoned, along with outspoken critics," Bond writes.</p>.<p>On Rajiv Gandhi, he says though he "did not have a political background, but he did his best, with the aid of his well-wishers and his supportive wife - until he too fell to an assassin's suicide bomb, the tragic outcome of his efforts to bring about a solution to the civil war in Sri Lanka".</p>.<p>Atal Bihari Vajpayee, according to Bond, was a modest and thoughtful man and the BJP's man of the moment.</p>.<p>"A few years before he had become prime minister, I had seen him walking down Mussoorie's Landour bazaar, accompanied by just one or two companions, chatting to shopkeepers and others without any pretensions or desire for show.</p>.<p>"When the BJP came to power, that same modesty, courtesy, and air of deliberation, made him a prime minister very different from his predecessors; a man who could, in many ways, identify with the aspirations of the people," he writes.</p>.<p>In the book, Bond also talks about the diverse elements of India - its rivers and forests, literature and culture, sights, sounds and colours.</p>.<p>"This little book does not claim to be a political or historical analysis of events, although I have dwelt on the highlights of the last 75 years of India's progress to maturity as a nation," he says.</p>.<p><strong>Watch latest videos by DH here:</strong></p>