India was on the cusp of freedom from British rule in 1947 and Vappala Pangunni Menon was completely worn out.
Three decades of working in the grinding imperial bureaucracy had taken its toll on the tenacious 54-year-old civil servant.
Menon was "exhausted, overworked, already coughing ominously", his biographer Narayani Basu recorded. He had worked as a key official on political and constitutional reforms to successive viceroys and helped in drafting a crucial transfer of power plan. He had not taken leave from work in years.
Menon was looking forward to a quiet retirement once the transfer of power celebrations ended on 15 August, the day India gained independence.
By nature a conservative, he was an ally of the independence hero and Congress party leader Vallabhbhai Patel. Now Patel summoned him again. The doughty leader was the minister in charge of the newly formed States Department to handle the matter of the princely states - and he wanted Menon - or VP, as he was popularly known - as his secretary.
It was another daunting job for the "small, alert and ferociously intelligent" civil servant, as historian Ramachandra Guha described Menon.
Three decades of working in the grinding imperial bureaucracy had taken its toll on the tenacious 54-year-old civil servant.
Menon was "exhausted, overworked, already coughing ominously", his biographer Narayani Basu recorded. He had worked as a key official on political and constitutional reforms to successive viceroys and helped in drafting a crucial transfer of power plan. He had not taken leave from work in years.
Menon was looking forward to a quiet retirement once the transfer of power celebrations ended on 15 August, the day India gained independence.
By nature a conservative, he was an ally of the independence hero and Congress party leader Vallabhbhai Patel. Now Patel summoned him again. The doughty leader was the minister in charge of the newly formed States Department to handle the matter of the princely states - and he wanted Menon - or VP, as he was popularly known - as his secretary.
It was another daunting job for the "small, alert and ferociously intelligent" civil servant, as historian Ramachandra Guha described Menon.
VP Menon: The forgotten hero who stitched India together
VP Menon, a brilliant civil servant who rose from the ranks, was the draftsman of India's integration.
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