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.