Tribute to my friend Reggie

It was indeed a privilege to have worked under Dumas when he was TT high commissioner to Canada. He was an outstanding diplomat and an effective administrator. I cherished our personal relationship which lasted up to the day of his sad passing.

It was indeed an honor to have been asked by this outstanding scholar and author to write the foreword for his latest book on Recollections, focusing on India. Reggie was eagerly looking forward to the launch of this book, which was delayed by the COVID-19 outbreak and now his untimely passing.

I highly recommend this book to readers whenever it is finally launched. This publication will reveal the finer qualities of a man who looked at societies with an open mind, appreciating the good, critical of the bad, and snubbing the ugly. His deep love for music and art is also reflected in the book.

On June 7, 2012, when I was high commissioner to India, Reggie sent me an email, the contents of which will be most appropriate to quote as a final tribute to him.

“Dear Chand…when I was in India 35 years ago I would go every Republic Day, I think it was, to the Red Fort with other diplomats for the late afternoon ceremony. Just before the end of the proceedings a trumpeter would play a Ladakh lullaby from one of the fort’s turrets. It was a haunting tune which I think of to this day. I don’t know if the ceremony still takes place and, if so, what the program now is. But would it be possible to check with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to see whether you could get for me a tape of the trumpeter’s version of the lullaby?”

Go in peace, my dear friend, with the Ladakh lullaby.

CHANDRADATH SINGH