India, Aug. 29 -- What makes a memoir special? The author's personal experiences - the people they meet, the positions they hold - that allow readers a rare snapshot of a life and its times. Occasionally, an individual's life unfolds alongside a nation's defining moments, and their memoir transcends the personal to become a witness to history. Urdu poet, wrestler and bureaucrat Kanwar Mohinder Singh Bedi 'Sahar's Yaadon Ka Jashn (1983), ably translated by Kamna Prasad as A Celebration of Memories, falls squarely in this category.

A staunch supporter of the ideals enshrined in the Indian Constitution, Bedi was a secularist who penned evocative na'ats - poems in praise of Prophet Mohammad, ensured that Ramleela was held in Delhi on the ver...