<p>HERE is a delightful medley of essays, articles, speeches, travelogues, book reviews and correspondence with the greats. The author, P.P. Ramachandran belonged to the world of banking, retiring as Deputy General Manager in Reserve Bank of India, where he worked for 40 long years. But he is a rare type of bird-a literary banker. His first love is literature and thus we find his pieces suffused with literary allusions. His encyclo-paedic reading has enabled him to recall a whole host of anecdotes and stories of a racy kind.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>The book is divided into five sections.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>The first section includes his tributes to great personalities at various functions. We have a chance to read his tribute to Vinda Karandikar, Durga Bhagwat, Albert Einstein, Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu, M.S. Subbulakshmi, Mumbai's bookseller T.N. Shanbag, and S. Chandrasekhar.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Section two consists of 16 book reviews. Ramachandran is a regular reviewer of books for Free Press Journal and "Shanmukha". He covers a variety of subjects with an authority that is impressive.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>The third section is dedicated to travelo-gues. These are based on his travels to Europe, America, Ashtavinayak, Uttaranchal and Konkan and contain vignettes of a delightful nature.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>The fourth section covers essays on a variety of subjects such as religion, science, mythology, and light articles on a number of interesting subjects.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>The fifth section covers his correspon-dence with great personalities like Rajaji, Radhakrishnan, Abdul Kalam, Khushwant Singh, H.R.F. Keating and Paul Gallico.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>In sum, this book is a veritable feast.</p>

<p>"Ramachandran's canvas is the whole wide world and he paints life with a vignette and readers will find this collectors' item an unputdownable book. The sheer breadth of his vision is wonderful to the point of bewilderment. In this slim volume, Ramachandran deftly handles subjects as widely variegated as contemporary issues, religion, science, the fine arts, mythology, social issues and biographical sketches.</p> <p>"Ramachandran is a reconnoitre of events and encounters with eminent personalities. He is at his scintillating best handling vastly different subjects and in one lifetime he has successively performed as central banker, journalist, social worker, critic, biographer, and more.</p> <p>"Ramachandran's writings are a sonata-a sheaf of memories and the reader's appetite would be whetted by this book and look forward to future volumes by him."</p> <p><strong>_S.S. Tarapore</strong></p> <p>Former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India; a columnist and the author of "Financial Policies in Everyday Life" (AF, 2010).</p>