A fond farewell

Chester Francis-Jackson, Contributor

And so, after a tour of duty lasting just around five years, His Excellency High Commissioner Mohinder Grover of India's tenure as his country's first citizen here has come to an end, and will see him returning to India this very weekend.

Indeed, High Commissioner Grover will be sorely missed, as during his tenure, High Commissioner Grover was not only a visible and well-liked and admired leading member of the resident diplomatic community, his was the role of a proactive diplomat, who deployed his considerable skills in furthering not just the bilateral relations between his home country and his host nation, he was very instrumental in promoting a number of cultural and social linkages between a number of Indian national organisations here, and their aspirational mandate of maintaining and/or promoting cultural and economic ties and relations between Jamaica and India.

Regarded by many of his diplomatic colleagues and many leading public officials, spanning three administrations, as the diplomats' diplomat, High Commissioner Grover earned the distinction of being highly regarded and respected as a contemporary philosopher schooled in the art and practice of the holistic approach to life and living and thus made for a calming influence.

Well, after seeing many of his diplomatic colleagues take their leave of this here fair island, and being always cognisant that he too would one day, as is the nature of the diplomatic tour, have to say farewell to new friends, and return home.

Well that time has come, and so it was that after attending a number of private farewell receptions and dinners hosted in his honour, last Thursday evening, High Commissioner Grover and his charming wife, Mrs Vardeep Grover, threw open the doors and gateway of India House, their official residence, and hosted their official farewell reception, over there on East Kings House Road, that proved quite a charming outing, and then some!

Dears, talk about fond farewells. Well, this was one such outing as indeed it was a gathering of not only friends, diplomatic colleagues, the judiciary and leading members of the Jamaican Indian community, there were loads of admirers as well, and it made for a moving do.

And when we say moving, my dears, we do mean tear-jerkingly so, as this was not one of your same-old-same-old farewell reception, as indeed High Commissioner and Mrs Vardeep Grover were too beloved for their farewell to be anything but show of haute fabulissimo, and that it was, and then some.

Dears, the evening began with cocktails on the
well-manicured east lawns of the residence. After and during cocktails,
guests were treated to a fabulous traditional fare by way of a supper,
and from then the affair segued into a fabulous cultural presentation of
traditional Indian folk dances in tribute to High Commissioner's Grover
support of the arts and Indian culture during his tenure.

With
the cultural presentations well received, it was then left to High
Commissioner Grover to say his thanks yous and farewells, but my dears,
this was no ordinary farewell and so it was that after High Commissioner
Grover spoke and the fulsome address by Foreign Minister Senator A.J.
Nicholson, many there were who asked for the opportunity to publicly
thank the high commissioner, as well as to laud him for his work and
interaction, during his tour, and luvs, it became a
lovefest.

Dears, with the skies threatening with dark
clouds, it rained accolades and commendations from a leading members of
the Jamaican-Indian community, as they and others were not stinting in
their praise and commendation of the high commissioner and his wife and,
dears, it made for a beautifully touching interlude. Dears, so much so,
that the high commissioner was moved to near tears, but what a
night!

My dears, it was all that and then some! But
more important, it was a most fitting mode in which to cap such an
illustrious and dignified tenure by a man gentle in nature but a giant
in the ways of arts, culture and a philosopher of no mean
order.

Indeed, Minister of Foreign Affairs Senator
A.J. Nicholson; Minister of Mining and Technology, Phillip Paulwell;
Custos of Kingston, The Hon Steadman and Mrs Fuller; Mayor of Kingston
Senator Angela Brown Burke; Former Senate President Professor Oswald
Harding and wife, Custos of St Andrew Mrs Marigold Harding; Chief
Justice Zaila and Wintson McCalla; Justices Glen Brown and Ingrid
Mangatal; Professor Edward and Mgrs Sheila Baugh; head of the EU,
Ambassador Paola Amadei, and husband Jorge Garzon; out-going Canadian
High Commissioner HE Stephen Hallihan and wife Mrs Kathy Hallihan;
Spanish Ambassador HE Celsa Nuño; Ambassador Maxine Roberts; Arun
Kashyap, head of the UNDP; Christopher Bovell and his fabulous wife,
Premier Socialite Mrs Michelle Bovell; The Hon Mike Fennell and Mrs
Peggy Fennell; the esteemed conglomateur Kenny Benjamin; leading jurist
Harold Brady; former Senator the charming Dorothy Lightbourne; Pokar and
Sati Chandiram; the esteemed Al Niazi; Dr Henry Lowe and his wife, the
stunning Mrs Janet Lowe; Rupert Bent and wife Cindy Breakspeare;
Honorary Consul of Iceland Robert MacMIllan; Socialite Jennifer Lim;
honorary consul of the Kingdom of Thailand, Mrs Thalia Lyn, and husband
Captain Michael Lyn; honorary consul of Finland, Andrew Issa; honorary
consul of Turkey, Arnold Foote, and Mrs Trica Foote; honorary consul of
Latvia, Robert Scott; Mrs Sylvia Collister; Andrea Bickhoff-Benjamin;
the esteemed Don Anderson and Mrs Anderson; leading Montego Bay
businessman and personality Lachu Ramchandani; the charmingly elegant R.
Christene King; former DCP Denver Frater; Vinay Walia of the Guardsman
Group; Claude Duncan of JAMPRO; Newly-weds Nari William-Singh and wife
Trisha Thompson; Vikram and Aditi Dhiman; Ramchandani; Jack Khemlani;
the lovely Annie Harris; and Ricardo Alicock of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs; plus a number of others.

Indeed, it was one
very fond farewell and then some. And as we say in Jamaica, "Walk Good,
High Commissioner and Mrs Vardeep Grover", as yours was a sterling
innings at the Jamaican diplomatic
wicket!