PRAN
SETH
Pran Seth started his career as a lecturer in
Political Science in a Punjab College in 1946. As a Masters student,
he had worked as a part-time senior editor of a Hindi daily
Viswabandhu. On graduation, he got a Gold medal for standing first
in the Masters examination in Political Science in the University of
Punjab, Lahore.
After the partition of India, he helped set up a
new Hindi daily called Amar Bharat in Delhi, which became
quite a success in its time. In late 1948, the Punjab government
hired him as a Public Relations Officer where his duties included
editing of their Hindi monthlies Jagriti and the English
Advance.
A few years later in 1954, he moved to Delhi
joining the Publications Division of the Ministry of Information and
Broadcasting as an editor of English magazines Kurukshetra and Gram
Sewak. – where he also worked under Khushwant Singh who was Chief
Editor- YOJANA and learnt his lessons in telling and writing a story.
His next job (1958) was as Director, Publicity in
the Department of Tourism, Government of India. This involved
overseeing the international publicity of over a score of Indian
tourist offices overseas and in India and the responsibility for
getting the Department of Tourism promotional literature written and
published in various foreign languages.
After heading the Publicity Division, he moved
overseas to head the Department of Tourism promotional offices in San
Francisco, New York, Frankfurt and Tokyo. He retired from government
service as a Deputy Director General, Department of Tourism.
Seth continued with his writing even while in
government service in India and while posted overseas. He regularly
contributed articles and (post retirement) columns on the subject of
tourism to both travel trade papers overseas and national
publications. Seth is at equal ease in writing in English and
Hindi. However, the target audience and subject matter of the books
he wrote, changed considerably over the years.
Earlier as a young officer in the Publications
Division in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, he wrote
children’s books and was awarded prizes continuously for three
years for writing the best Hindi, Punjabi and English books for
neo-literates. He had other interesting assignments including some
textbooks on Social Studies in Hindi. These books were published by
the Punjab Government under its nationalization of text books
program. His most well known book in this series ( published by
Macmillan’s in 1954) was entitled Man and His World - a
700-page text on Social Studies for high school students in Hindi -
a pioneering work in the field of social studies – a new subject
introduced at that time. Later, based on his experiences while
posted to various countries, he wrote travelogues in Hindi on Japan and
USA. Published by Rajpal and Sons, these went into several editions.
After retirement from the government service, Seth
started teaching Tourism in Delhi University as the head of a
Post-Graduate Programme and also took over training programs for
tourist officers of the Government of India. He then wrote the first
tourism textbook for Indian students entitled, Successful Tourism
Management. This was subsequently revised into two volumes of
800 pages suitable for the Masters program and is now into its fifth
edition. Other books followed like An Introduction to Travel and
Tourism, and Tourism
Marketing in Asia.
Based on his experience with marketing India
overseas, Seth was asked by the Sterling Publishers to write a
guidebook on India. The result was another comprehensive book of 800
pages, India - A Traveler’s Companion, now in its third
edition. This was followed by the book, Fiji- A Paradise in
Peril, which was the result of a visit to Fiji soon after its
1987 military coup- again published by Sterling.
Through his long and varied years, Seth has
observed life, people and events. Along the way, his love of
writing meant that he can share much of what he has learnt with his
readers in his latest book – Lahore To Delhi - Rising from the ashes.