May Lord Buddha Grant Him Eternal Peace
By
Dr Nil Ratan, Anugraha Narayan Sinha Institute of Social Studies, Patna
Shakti was a Michaelite from 1972 batch St Michael’s Patna and then went on to Hindu College, Delhi University. After already scaling many administrative heights, it was now the turn of the Academics and he was proving to be equally good And then suddenly during early hours of 04 Oct 21, he attained Nirvana, in his sleep. A very shocking news to rest of us family and friends.
The poem by Robert H Smith below, sent from Atlanta, USA by Anuj Sinha ( a school mate ) aptly describes, how Shakti followed the poem and lived a FULL LIFE, everyday :
The clock of life is wound but once,
And no man has the power
To tell just when the hands will stop
At late or early hour.
To lose one’s wealth is sad indeed,
To lose one’s health is more,
To lose one’s soul is such a loss
That no man can restore.
The present only is our own,
So live, love, toil with a will,
Place no faith in “Tomorrow,”
For the Clock may then be still.
Robert H. Smith
Shakti Sinha was the Honorary Director of the Vadodara-based think tank, the Atal Bihari Institute of Policy Research & International Studies (Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda). Earlier, he was the Director of the Nehru Memorial Museum & Library, New Delhi, a National Institution. He was a Distinguished Fellow at the India Foundation (New Delhi), and was also a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), Singapore.
He had a Master’s in Public Policy from George Mason University, and a Master’s in History from Delhi University. He was a member of the Indian Administrative Service from 1979 to 2013. He has held positions at different levels at the union, provincial and local levels.
Internationally, he headed the United Nation’s governance & development team in Afghanistan (2006-09) coordinating donor support to the Afghan government, and was earlier Senior Advisor to India’s Executive Director on the World Bank board (2000-2004), representing Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Sri Lanka.
Mr Sinha has worked at think tanks in India (Director, India Foundation; Visiting Senior Fellow, Observer Research Foundation), at Singapore (Research Fellow, Institute of South Asian Studies).
He is the author of a recently published book, ‘Vajpayee: The Years That Changed India.’. He has edited eight books, the most recent one being an authoritative account of different facets of India-China relations (One Mountain Two Tigers: India, China and the High Himalayas). He has written many book chapters, working papers, policy briefs, columns etc. on political economy of India, Indian foreign policy & strategic affairs, governance, and on Afghanistan, for global and Indian publications.
