Indian and Pakistani High Commissioners at Pakistan House, London (1960)

Pakistani High Commissioner Gen M Yousuf receives Indian High Commissioner Mme Vijayalakshmi Pandit at the door of 53 Avenue Road, northwest London, on the occasion of a dinner or reception. Both were their respective countries' ambassadors to Great Britain at the same time, and as can be seen, had mutual regard and rapport.

Vijayalakshmi Pandit was the able sister of PM Jawaharlal Nehru. In her diplomatic career she also capably represented India in Moscow, and was a charismatic President of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Indira Gandhi thus had a formidable intellectual and political pedigree. The Nehrus, Kashmiri Brahmins, settled in Allahabad and were adepts in Urdu, Farsi, and of course Sanskrit and English.

Our Ambassadorial Residence in London, of matchless historical and real estate value, was most unfortunately lost to us some decades earlier, typically during the tenure of a non-service appointee.

– Arshad Afridi