New Delhi: Former Election Commissioner of India Ashok Lavasa’s new book An Ordinary Life: Portrait of an Indian Generation focuses on the little-highlighted stories of the lives of common people, and aims to disseminate the “grounded wisdom” found in those of an earlier generation.
Published by HarperCollins India, the book will be released on 31 July on ‘SoftCover’, ThePrint’s e-venue to launch select non-fiction books.
Lavasa centres the book around the ‘ordinary’ life led by his father, Udai Singh, in a rapidly evolving India. He shares details on the principles held by Singh, or Bauji as he is referred to by Lavasa, as well as the moral compass imbibed in him.
Using a pivotal train journey from Vadodara, also known as Baroda, in his childhood as a starting point, Lavasa attempts to revive conversations between parents and children, around the stories of those like his father.
“These conversations are important for individual relationships, for families, for societies and for systems. Parents, priests, scientists, academicians, managers, administrators and leaders must engage in such conversation in order to maintain their social contract,” he writes.
A 1980 batch IAS officer, Lavasa worked in several positions for the Haryana government and the Centre, before serving as one of the three Election Commissioners of India, overseeing the 2019 general elections.
Lavasa resigned from the EC in August 2020 and was appointed Vice President of the Asian Development Bank in Manila, Philippines.
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