Late Smt Prabha Rao

Heard about the sad demise of Prabha Rao, the Honourable Governor of Rajasthan. It was hard for me to come to terms with the loss. I hadn’t met her since she took office as the Governor or Rajasthan. I was supposed to meet her two days prior to my departure from Kolkata. As I was to travel abroad, I had requested Raj Bhavan Jaipur that I would call on her on my return on May 20, 2010.

I had, in fact, received a late night received a call from Lokesh ji, one of the members of the Raj Bhavan Secretariat, that it would be better if I could come and meet her as the Governor had already reconfirmed our meeting immediately after returning from Maharashtra. The first appointment that I sought did not materialise as the Governor was travelling that week. I excused my self and wrote a letter to Smt Rao in which I said that I would seek a reappointment once I come back to India from my overseas trip. I have very cordial relations with Rajasthan Raj Bhavan past Governors, officials and staff.

Smt Rao was the only Governor of Rajasthan in the past 15 years whom I had not met. Whether it is Anshuman Singh, Nirmal Chand Jain, Pratibha Patil, Madanlal Khurana or S K Singh, I have had various meetings with all of them (pictures). The Governors in Rajasthan have been very kind in attending various functions organised / supported by me. Also, they have graced so many other functions across Rajasthan and in Kolkata from time to time, on my request.

Most religions in the world believe that our destiny is written and what has to happen will happen. I can now only regret my decision of not meeting her at the first instance when an appointment was fixed. Then, I had felt that a Rajasthan detour would be very strenuous on my part on the eve of my departure to the American continent.

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