M.C. Chagla - Roses in December: An Autobiography

A Book isgenerally the result of co-operative effort. It is not what the author writesthat ultimately gets published. He receives suggestions, criticism, advice asto what to omit and what to put in. Most important of all, he must be persuadedto write it in the first place. The book may be in his mind, and might remainburied there. The literary adventure begins to take shape when the first lineis written and then, unfortunately for the reader, the explosion follows.

I owe theidea of writing this book to my younger son Iqbal. I had an eye operation, whenI was compulsorily prevented from reading anything for a whole month. As isusual with me, I was fretting and fuming and was looking round for something todo. Iqbal placed a tape recorder by my side and told me to start dictating thebook then and there. With considerable hesitation, and for want of anything betterto do I started. Almost all the first 75 pages were dictated on the taperecorder. I am deeply grateful to Iqbal's wife, Roshan, for taking down therecording in shorthand and typing it. I know what a laborious and wearisometask it was. It was cheerfully and ungrudgingly performed. The rest of the bookwas dictated to stenographers, most of it to Mr. Pithavalla, whose services Mr.Nani Palkhivala very kindly lent to me. He did an excellent job and sent thetranscript exactly as I had dictated it - not a distorted unintelligibleversion of what I had said.

I haveworked fairly hard throughout my life; but the labours involved in writing thisbook was something for which I was never prepared. If I knew, I might havepaused, perhaps withdrawn from the undertaking to the undoubted relief of mypotential readers. The dictation, apart from tape-recording, took over 60hours, and almost twice the time was taken up in going through the files of 50years - press cuttings, speeches, broadcasts and letters, most of which hadbeen painstakingly preserved by my wife.

I am deeplythankful to Mr. Morarji Desai for the use I have made of some of his letters,to the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Trust for the letters of Nehru, and also toAll India Radio for quoting an extract from the broadcast I made on 27th May1958 entitled "As I Look Back".

I have alsoto thank Iqbal for going, through most of the book chapter by chapter, andmaking valuable suggestions many of which I have incorporated.

Theselection of a publisher is a crucial decision which an author has to take Thesuccess or failure of a book depends as much upon what the author has writtenas upon the manner in which it is published I am very happy that I selectedBharatiya Vidya Bhavan - largely because it was the creation of Dr K. M Munshiand my close relationship with him. I have to thank its Executlve Secretary andHead of the Department of Publications Mr. S. Ramakrishnan and its ProductionManager Mr. M.K. Rajagopalan for the assistance they gave me and the way theyworked with a dedicated spirit to make the book a model of good production. Ihave also to thank the Press, the Inland Printers, for the very fine job theyhave done. If the book fails to meet with the approval of the reading public,it will certainly not be due to the Publishers or Printers.

And finallyI must m anticipation express my thanks to the reader. If he has had thepatience to go through to the end of the book, my labours will not have gonewholly unrewarded It is rarely that the life of any individual is of genuineinterest to others But I have played a small part in the unfolding of India'shistory in the last 50 years - and the interest of the book to the readershould lie not in what I did or what I said, but in the pattern of history inwhich individuals are only instruments; it is through them that the finaldesign is worked out.

-M. C. CHAGLA

September30, 1973