On Balance

Leila Seth

Description

The first woman Chief Justice of a High Court in India, the first woman Judge of the Delhi High Court, the first woman to top the Bar examinations in London: Leila Seth has led a full life. In this autobiography, Leila talks about its joyous as well as its difficult moments. Figuring prominently are her early years of homelessness and struggle, her straying into law while in England with her husband Premo, and later practising in Patna, Calcutta and Delhi; and her happy marriage of over fifty years, including the experience of bringing up three remarkable children: writer Vikram, Zen Buddhist dharmacharya Shantum and film-maker Aradhana. Intertwining family life with professional, Leila movingly describes the years after her father s premature death when as children they were obliged to live with friends. There are also delightful vignettes: Premo and her turning an old mansion into a splendid home in Patna, Vikram s writing of the novel A Suitable Boy, Shantum s ordination as a Buddhist teacher by Thich Nhat Hanh and Aradhana s marriage to Peter, an Austrian diplomat, and work as art director on films like Earth and Water. Intimate, intricate, charming and often amusing, On Balance presents a rich and heart-warming portrait of an exceptional woman, her family and her times.

Sujets

• Droit et juridique
• India

Informations

• Publié par: Penguin Books Ltd
• Date de parution: 07 février 2007
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9788184750553
• Langue: English

Extrait

Leila Seth
On Balance
An Autobiography

PENGUIN BOOKS
Contents
About the Author
Praise for the Book
Dedication
Foreword by Vikram Seth
A Word of Thanks
Preface
 
PART ONE: MY EARLY YEARS
My Mother s Tongue
Memories of Father and a Home
A Suitable Boy
Batanagar
 
PART TWO: FROM BAR TO BENCH
Mother in Law
Afraid of Bats
White Pillars
Ira
Equal Plus
Emergency
Disgraced
My Lady or My Lord?
First Woman Chief Justice
 
PART THREE: A SENSE OF FREEDOM
A Home at Last
Standing Up
Leila Seth Commission of Inquiry
Law Commission
Arbitration and Other Activities
The Family Again
On Balance
Illustrations
Afterword
Copyright Page
PENGUIN BOOKS ON BALANCE
Leila Seth retired as Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh in 1992, was appointed in 1995 as the one-member commission to examine the death in custody of Rajan Pillai, and from 1997 to 2000 was a member of the 15th Law of Commission of India. She does arbitration work and is involved in human rights activities. She lives in Noida with her husband Premo, son Shantum, daughter-in-law Gitanjali and granddaughters Nandini and Anamika.
PRAISE FOR THE BOOK
[The book] is as much a sociological study of a time slipping by as of how to balance a full working life with an even more replete domestic life . . . An extraordinary account of a wonderful life
- India Today
A woman of many firsts . . . Her spirit shines through the pages, making [ On Balance ] a very interesting read
- Femina
The delicate humour and understanding with which she records her life . . . gains from her understanding of the political and judicial circumstances that she went through
- Hindustan Times
In a style both creative and simple, Leila Seth brings to life the events and experiences of her amazing life
- Deccan Herald
There is an easy elegance here, a fluid readability, and a lucid, completely unaffected, eloquence of one who is at ease with herself
- The Hindu
One of the most highly readable legal autobiographies to be published, [the book] recounts a life which is as eventful as it is interesting. [It] is made all the more enjoyable by the candour, objectivity and self-deprecating humour of the author
- Journal of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association
To Premo who gave me the space to grow and to Nandini and Anamika who are our future
It is perhaps as difficult to write a good life as to live one.
Lytton Strachey
Foreword
B efore she embarked on this book, Mama had written a little poetry, a large number of letters, numerous briefs, judgments and opinions, and a few lectures. Nothing prepared us for the richness and breadth of this autobiography-its acuity, its variety, its warmth.
Because of the many strands in the book, it was always going to be difficult to choose a title. On Balance refers not only to the scales of justice and the balancing of work and private life, but also to Mama s natural bent for weighing things judiciously before talking or writing about them. Still, this did not prevent her from discussing not only joyful happenings and public achievements but also difficult, and in some cases deeply painful matters, whether in her professional or in her family life. It is this that has made her book so intimate and so moving to many readers, most of whom have never met her.
I was standing in a queue the other day, one of a large crowd of invitees gathered to meet an important personage, when his wife, half affectionately, half ironically, said, Ah, a well-recognized face approaches! She then told me, without further preamble, I haven t read your recent book, but I have read your mother s, before going on to praise it. As I replied then, and as I have to admit now, if there had to be a choice, it was the right one.
We had tried for years to get our mother to write her memoirs, but it took the birth of her first grandchild, Nandini, to provide the vital impulse. Meanwhile, Nandini s sister, the equally delightful Anamika, has been born. We were hoping that his might induce our father, who, though usually taciturn, is a natural raconteur, to join the authorial circle. So far, frustratingly, he is proving a harder nut to crack; but we live in hope.
Vikram Seth
A Word of Thanks
M any relatives, friends and others helped me while I was writing this book. I mention those I remember-please forgive me if I have forgotten to include your name, but I thank you all.
Bina Aranha, Aloka and Gautam Chakravarti, Devkisan Chetwani, Maja Daruwala, Dayita Datta, Pradip Krishen, Siddhartha Mehta, Kuldip Nayar, Rajinder Sachar, Kamlesh Sharma, Kuldip Sood, Sheila and Trishna Tandon and Mohan Lal Varma for helping me with your expertise in diverse fields.
Christine Cipriani, Poulomi Chatterji, David Davidar, Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal and Aradhana Seth, Meenakshi Mukherjee, Ruma Pal, Gitanjali and Shantum Seth, Sashi and Usha Seth, Premo Seth, and Shanti Varma for reading the manuscript and so generously contributing your time, ideas and comments; as you read this book, each of you will recognize your particular contributions and realize how much your suggestions have helped to make On Balance a better and more cohesive book.
Kamini Mahadevan and Vikram Seth, my two editors: I shall always be grateful to you; and whatever I say in words will not be adequate. You Kamini, for prodding and probing to get me to jog my memory and put things down on paper and for then giving these some semblance of sense and sequence; and you, Vikram, for painstakingly correcting the English and grammar that I taught you almost fifty years ago, for helping me recall facts about the family, and for giving the book a more coherent structure. You have both made what was ordinary into what means something special to me.
Ravi Kumar Khattar, better known at Penguin India as Ravi Auto: for carrying, in the early morning and late at night, the draft pages for correction and typesetting between me, Kamini and the excellent typesetter, Rajinder Ganju, who carefully and speedily incorporated every semi-colon and full-stop.
Granville Austin, for allowing me to use material from your book Working a Democratic Constitution: The Indian Experience and to quote from it; Graciela Iturbide, Robert Lamar and Tejbir Singh for letting me use some wonderful family photographs taken by you; Bena Sareen for designing the book jacket so beautifully; V.K. Karthika for carrying the heavy manuscript in the hope it is widely marketed and Hemali Sodhi for helping to sell it; and last but not least, Subhasis Ganguly for producing such a presentable book.
Once again, I thank you, in legal parlance, both jointly and severally.
Preface
W hy do I write? I wonder. Is it because I am over seventy and want to look back on my life? Not really, because I prefer looking ahead; there is still so much to be done, experienced and enjoyed. Now and then I have toyed with the idea of a memoir. Over the years, several young women have asked me what it was like when I started to practise law in 1959, and that too in a place like Bihar. They felt that my experiences would give them and others the courage and confidence to go ahead. Many young parents also asked me how I had brought up my three children to be such interesting young people. None of them do a nine-to-five job but they are all happy and successful. Others wanted to know how I balanced my home and my work.
Early in 1992 David Davidar of Penguin Books India came to stay with me in Shimla for over a week. He wanted to read my son Vikram s novel A Suitable Boy that ran into over 2,500 pages in manuscript. While David was there, both Vikram and he came up with the suggestion that when I retired in October, I should write about my life. But after retirement I was always far too busy. And somehow, at that stage, I was not inclined to look back at all. Perhaps this was for the best, as I had many interesting experiences thereafter, from which I learnt a great deal.
At the end of August 2000, I was due to complete my term as a member of the 15th Law Commission of India. But early that month I met with an accident at a Penguin book launch. It was a merry occasion at which cartoonist R.K. Laxman s book The Best of Laxman: The Common Man in the New Millennium was being released. Though for fifty years the Common Man had been silent, his creator had with his insightful comments on the social and political scene kept his readers wonderfully amused.
Like many others, I bought the book and got him to sign it. I was feeling very pleased with myself until I tripped over a microphone wire lying loose on the carpet. I was in utter agony. I had a multiple fracture of the left ankle and needed surgery, steel plates and screws, and plaster. I would have to be out of circulation for a minimum of thirteen weeks. I was contemplating suing somebody for this negligence. But whom could I sue? The delightful and distinguished Mr Laxman, my good friend David Davidar, or the Taj Mahal Hotel, or the lot? But considering the odds, and knowing the vagaries and slow pace of the law, I decided against any action. It would probably take thirty years for a suit in tort to come to fruition. I was unlikely to reach the age of one hundred, so like the Common Man I decided to remain silent and assume a quizzical expression.
The forced rest gave me time to reflect. And Penguin India s senior editor, Kamini, came to visit me and insisted I start writing. Now is the time, she said.
I still prevaricated, being painfully aware of my limitations, and feeling embarrassed to project myself into the public eye.
Eventually, it was the birth of my granddaughter Nandini, four days after our fiftieth wedding anniversary, that propelled me into taking the plunge. I wanted her to know about our life, and I realized that I might not be around to tell her about it personally.
So, slowly and silently, I decided to get on with it; hopefully, this book will be published in t