Pavan Varma

Pavan Varma
Varma speaking at a book launch in Nehru Centre, London, in 2005, when he was its director
Indian High Commissioner to Cyprus
In office 8 August 2001 – 23 January 2004
Preceded by	Shyamala Balasubramanian Cowsik
Succeeded by
Indian Ambassador to Bhutan
In office 2009–2013
Preceded by	Sudhir Vyas
Succeeded by
MP of Rajya Sabha for Bihar
In office 23 June 2014 – 7 July 2016
General Secretary of Janata Dal (United)
In office 10 November 2016 – 29 January 2020
Personal details
Born	(1953-11-05) 5 November 1953 (age 67) Nagpur[1]

Pavan K. Varma (born 5 November 1953) is a former Indian Foreign Service officer and was an adviser to the Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar, with cabinet rank.^{[citation needed]}

With effect from June 2014, he was a Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) until July 2016. He was the National General Secretary and National Spokesman of the Janata Dal (United). He was expelled from JD(U) in January 2020 for opposing the CAA.

Pavan Varma speaking at Ghalib anniversary function

Biography[]

After voluntarily retiring from the Foreign Service, with an undistinguished record, in 2012, Varma became a culture adviser to the Chief Minister of Bihar. This was not a 'Cabinet level' rank. It was a merely honorary title. Sadly, he proved useless. ^[2] He is expelled from JDU.^[3] Varma lives in Delhi. Pavan writes columns for Asian Age, Times of India.^[4] Pavan Varma condemned those who were opposing a webinar on Ramayana done by JNU and termed them as being illiterate secular ^[5]

Bibliography[]

Fiction[]

• Pavan K. Varma (2012). When Loss is Gain. Rain Tree. ISBN 978-81-291-1941-4.

Non-fiction[]

• Pavan K. Varma (1989). Ghalib, the man, the times. Viking.
• Pavan K. Varma (1992). Havelis of Old Delhi. Bookwise (India).
• Pavan K. Varma (1993). Krishna, the playful divine. Viking.
• Pavan K. Varma (1996). Yudhishtar and Draupadi. Penguin Books India.
• Pavan K. Varma (1998). The great Indian middle class. Viking.
• Pavan K. Varma (1 April 2004). Being Indian: the truth about why the twenty-first century will be India's. Viking.
• Pavan K. Varma; Sandhya Mulchandani (1 June 2004). Love and lust: an anthology of erotic literature from ancient and medieval India. HarperCollins Publishers a joint venture with India Today Group.
• Pavan K. Varma (1 February 2007). Kamasutra: The Art of Making Love to a Woman. Roli Books Private, Limited. ISBN 978-81-7436-448-7.
• Pavan K. Varma (2010). Becoming Indian: The Unfinished Revolution of Culture and Identity. Penguin Books India. ISBN 978-0-670-08346-6.
• Pavan K. Varma (2018). Adi Shankaracharya: Hinduism's Greatest Thinker. Tranquebar. ISBN 978-81-9365-561-0.

As a sequel to The Great Indian Middle Class in 1998, he, in association with journalist Renuka Khandekar, published Maximize Your Life: An Action Plan for the Indian Middle Class (Viking 2000). His 2004 Being Indian was published by William Heinemann, in the United Kingdom, as Being Indian: Inside the Real India in March 2005.

Adi Shankaracharya: Hinduism's Greatest Thinker has translated and published in various indian languages

Translations[]

• Selected Poems: Kaifi Azmi (Viking/Penguin 2001) is the English translation of the Urdu poems of Kaifi Azmi.
• 21 Poems (Viking/Penguin), a translation in English of the Hindi poems of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the then Prime Minister of India, was published in December 2001.
• Selected Poems: Gulzar (Penguin) a translated collection of the poems of Gulzar into English, one of India’s best-known poets, came out in April 2008.
• Neglected Poems, Pavan K. Varma’s second volume of the English translations of Gulzar’s poems was launched at the Jaipur Literary Festival in January 2012.
• Green Poems: Gulzar, (Penguin, 2014) Pavan K. Varma's third volume of the English translation of Gulzar's poems.
• Suspected Poems: Gulzar, (Penguin, 2017) Pavan K. Varma's fourth volume of the English translation of Gulzar's poems.

Awards[]

Kalinga International Literary Awards in 2019

References[]