Mrs. Cheryll Solomon, the author's wife, presented Mr. I.K. Gujral a bouquet of flowers.

Mrs.Cheryll Solomon welcoming Mr I. K Gujral



Mr I. K.Gujral releasing the book SHADOWS OF TRUTH

The Former Prime Minister of India recollected his childhood in the small town of Jhelum, now in Pakistan and spoke at length about his one-room-school and the teacher who lived in the school with his full family.

He spoke about how his father used to tell him that school was a place where one learnt about life. Mr. Gujral recalled his days in the University and reading a book called ‘Studies in a Dying Culture’ whose interesting foreword contains a few sentences that stuck with Mr. Gujral forever. They read, "This is a book about poetry, so let us talk about poetry. But poetry is written in a language, so let us talk about languages. But languages are spoken by the people, so let us talk about people. But people live in social circumstances, so let us talk about society."

Mr. Gujral also spoke about life and how changes must always occur in life. He said as life reveals itself, the more curious it becomes. The more curious it becomes, the more creativity it makes. The more creativity that is made, the more flights begin and the urge to ask questions.

The first speaker at the occasion was Mr. John Dayal, Editor Delhi MID DAY, where Prashant Solomon worked as a reporter between November 1995 and October 1996. Mr. Dayal said, "It is with a rare celebratory mood that I speak of Prashant and the sort of work he’s done. A few people of his age or slightly older have written books and a few of these have done India proud. But we don’t have too many people writing short stories. We have almost nobody writing science fiction, writing something that Poe could have written. Writing something that challenges the imagination, not bound by the limits of space & time & geography and this is what this young gentleman has sought out to do. I take particular pride in his achievement, his maiden work, his first born. For any man to write a book is the closest he can ever come to feeling like a woman. The birth pangs of a book are no less."

The next speaker was Mr. S.P. Bakshi, Resident Director of the Army Public School and former Principal of Modern School, Barakhamba Road, where the author passed out from in 1990. Mr. Bakshi was the Modern School Principal at that time and greatly influenced the young Prashant Solomon in 1987, when he asked the school magazine to publish a letter that Prashant had written to then Indian Prime Minister Mr. Rajiv Gandhi and also Mr. Gandhi's reply.

"I was walking into the morning assembly when young Prashant came and showed me the letter that Mr. Rajiv Gandhi had sent him. I read the letter and liked it and also felt mighty proud of him. I told him that I would mention it in the assembly, but also that he should go to the school magazine with it," recounted Mr. Bakshi. [NOTE: Mr. Bakshi's support deeply encouraged young Prashant to continue writing, which ultimately led him to join the school Magazine Sandesh and then much later the Delhi MID DAY as a reporter. It was after the stint in MID DAY that Prashant Solomon decided to write fiction and occasionally freelance for national newspapers and magazines.]

Mr. Bakshi also spoke about the system of education all around the world and that children should always be encouraged irrespective of their marks in school. They should never be ridiculed, but given a chance to blossom in other fields like music, sports, and arts or wherever they are inclined.

He also said that the writings of Prashant Solomon revealed that he is God-fearing and tilted towards spirituality and also reveal a constant "presence of the Lord, presence of a good angel".

Mr. Bakshi then read out the poem ‘Destiny’ from the book SHADOWS OF TRUTH and also a message from the noted author Ruskin Bond, who has written the book’s foreword but was unable to attend the function. Mr. Bond said, "Congratulations on the publication of your first book. May it be the precursor of many more, best of luck."

The last speaker was Prashant Solomon, who thanked Mr. Gujral, Mr. Bakshi and Mr. Dayal and also all the guests.