Welcome to the second volume of ‘Benign and Beautiful’. Since the publication of the first volume in 2019, the world has changed in many unimaginable ways due to COVID-19. The suffering, distress and loss of life caused by the pandemic continues to dominate our daily news. India, unfortunately, is at the centre of the headlines at the time of writing, with high rates of infection and mortality.

It goes without saying that the suffering and loss caused by COVID-19 have traumatised our world. Maintaining hope in such scenarios is not easy and yet it is essential. Without hope, we are defeated.

The proverbs in this book have their origins in Jaipur, India. They have been chosen as little beacons of hope and resilience for the uncertain times we are living in. And, as reminders to the reader that a life of simplicity and sharing can bring about hope and unity in our local communities.

After a chance meeting with Mr. Garg in 2014, MusicAlive, created volume 1 of the Benign and Beautiful series. For this second volume of Benign and Beautiful, a number of proverbs were selected and accompanied with photographs (by Reddy O’Regan and Richard Winfield) and translations into Irish (by Deirdre Ní Luasaigh) and Hindi (Lauren Lewthwaite, TransPerfect Translations)

­­Benign & Beautiful is a book inspired by a visit to India.  It features a collection of proverbs, selected from the writings of Mr. M.P Garg.  For many years, Mr. Garg published a regular column in a local publication under the heading of Benign & Beautiful.

After a chance meeting with Mr. Garg in 2014, MusicAlive, created volume 1 of the Benign and Beautiful series. For the first volume, a number of proverbs were selected and accompanied with photographs (by Aoise Tutty Jackson) and translations into Irish (by Deirdre Ní Luasaigh).

Since its publication in 2019, the book has crossed many borders and found its way into homes, community centres, hospitals, doctors’ surgeries and prisons. This brief testimony captures the general warm welcome the book has received.

“Everything about Benign & Beautiful glows; from the cover, to your encounters and tales of adventure in India and the text – it simply shines. It’s quite extraordinary; the power of language to bring and hold such joy. I will dig deep into Benign & Beautiful often and cherish it forever.” - Mary

All proceeds from Benign & Beautiful are donated to an Irish charity working in India – the Hope Foundation. www.hopefoundation.ie

Learn more about M P Garg from his son Sudhir

 My father, Professor. M P Garg was born on 15th August 1922 in Jaipur, India.  My grandfather Late Sh. ShyamSundar Garg was “Nazim” at Jaipur State which was a senior prestigious post at that time and his house was famous as “Nazim ji ki Haveli” in old city of Jaipur. He was sixth among 5 brothers and four sisters in the family and academically most talented.  Getting an education and a graduate degree was not so easy in those days and it was difficult to gain admission in British ruled schools before Indian Independence.

He received his high school education from the Scottish Mission School during 1935-1938. He graduated from Maharaja College Jaipur, Agra University in 1942 and from the University of Bombay in 1945 before independence. Going to Bombay (Now Mumbai, India) for higher studies and surviving without much financial help was not an easy task. He used to take tuition classes for his expenses and study by the light of roadside lampposts at nights as his financial position not good at that time.

He excelled in every field he participated in whether that was in his studies, debates, competitions, or sports. In the later stages of his life when he was financially secure he helped all his relatives so that they could live a better life.  He was married to my mother Smt. Sushila Garg who was strength of his life and remained devoted for him till the last day of his life in Jan 10th 2018.

 My father spent the initial days of his own life in hardship and he struggled but in time he provided us with the best of the privileged living standards and education in life. He bought one Standard 10 car in the 1960’s imported from England when not many cars there in Jaipur those days.  He used to take us for holidays every summer to hill stations of India where we enjoyed taking us for picnics to nearby places on weekends.  He was quite fond of Indian Cinema and often took us to movie theatres and to restaurants for dinner once or twice a week.

Besides education and sports he contributed to one of the top Indian Newspapers “SCREEN”   Weekly (Indian Express Group of Newspapers) for about sixty years from 1950 to 2010 as an Independent Correspondent. He used his own portable Remington typewriter which he bought in 1949 to type news and articles. Later he started an academic and sports club under the name of “Prasad Library” (almost all of our family members second name is ‘Prasad’) where club members used to share & read all kind of books and magazines and play sports like Badminton, Chess, Carom Board etc.  during the 1960’s. We had our own Badminton Court at our house which was not so common and he managed a Badminton Club as well.

He was quite regular in his morning walk and Pranayama without fail early in the morning beginning at 4.30 am throughout the year in all weather conditions including rain and cold winters.  This is one of the biggest inspirations for all of us. He survived for full 45 years of life after having a heart attack at the age of 50 in early 1970s.  We believe this was only due to the regular habit of his morning walk.

He helped in the foundation of one girls’ college (Sterlite Girls College) at a remote place: Reengus around 85 KM away from Jaipur. He did this when he was over 75 years and travelled up and down daily for that. Now thousands of girls have already graduated from that college and are living with a better standard of life, which were otherwise not possible in absence of any other girls’ college in that region. He did lots of charitable work including building one premises for Thalassemia patients and provided a mid-day meal to all school children at Prem Niketan Ashram School where he used to live after his retirement until he departed this world.

He gave free tuition to poor school students when he was in his nineties when most of us not in a position to survive or walk!

He was very strong willed and had full faith in God and destiny. Lots of our relatives used to meet him frequently only to feel rejuvenated and forget the miseries of life and their health problems.  He was the greatest example for livelihood and vigor I have come across in my life. We know lots of godfathers and saints in our life but some of them do their work untiringly without being noticed. He was strong believer of the concept of “Karma” (to keep doing your work without fear and favour, without bothering about results).

 I have unending remembrance and motivational examples of him but not possible to summarize them all here. These are but a few examples I have to share.

Paying my heartfelt tributes to him. 

Sudhir Garg, October 2021.