“Fragments of a Life Observed” is not merely a collection of musings. It is the reflective journey of a man who has continued to engage deeply with life despite having seen its fragility closely.
I have known Shri Pramod Kumar Gupta not only as an accomplished administrator and thinker, but also as someone who possesses a rare sensitivity towards people, relationships and the emotional undercurrents of everyday existence. These writings emerge from attentive living. They are born not in isolation, but in constant dialogue with the world around him.
In an age where speed often overtakes reflection, these musings compel the reader to pause. A passing conversation, an ordinary incident, ageing, friendship, loneliness, politics, memory, illness, hope — everything becomes meaningful through the lens of an observant and deeply humane mind. What distinguishes these pieces is their emotional honesty. There is neither intellectual pretension nor dramatic excess. Instead, there is quiet depth.
Having personally witnessed his remarkable resilience following a haemorrhagic stroke in 2021, I perhaps read these musings differently. They are not merely observations about life; they are affirmations of life itself. Writing, for him, has become both reflection and recovery — an act of reclaiming continuity, meaning and emotional connectedness.
The title Fragments of a Life Observed is profoundly appropriate. Life rarely unfolds as a grand, complete narrative. It reveals itself in fragments — moments, encounters, silences and memories. The author gathers these fragments with sensitivity and offers them to the reader with sincerity.
This book will resonate with those who still value introspection, empathy and the simple yet profound art of noticing life.
— Dr Sanjay Chugh, Psychiatrist
Pramod K. Gupta
Pramod Kumar Gupta, a distinguished officer of the Indian Revenue Service (1984 batch), superannuated as Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax in October 2019. Thereafter, he served as the CEO and Director General of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India.
Life, however, had other designs. In April 2021, he suffered a haemorrhagic stroke — a near-death experience that compelled him to pause, reflect, and rediscover life in fragments both fragile and profound. Though physically challenged thereafter, he remained inwardly alive to people, relationships, memory, faith, books, travel, silence, and the unnoticed beauty of ordinary days.
Writing became not merely an expression, but a way of healing and witnessing life anew. His memoir And Living Again was published in 2023 alongside a collection of Hindi poems titled Avyakta. In 2024 came Living Through Times and Dhanbad – The Economics of Coal – The Mafia.
Fragments of a Life Observed emerges from that continuing journey — a deeply personal collection of musings shaped by pain and gratitude, nostalgia and observation, solitude and resilience; reflections gathered gently from a life intensely lived and quietly understood.
Contents
Preface
Publisher’s Note
1. In Life
• The Weight of Unexpressed Emotions
• Ageing Does Strike
• Humans — The Dilemmas
• Reactions to a Wonderfully Written Post
• William Faulkner on True Love
• Life Can Change in Moments
• That’s the Way Life Is
• Before the Light Settles
• How a Son Can Make a Father Read
• 31st March / 1st April
• A Quiet Farewell
• Words at the Turn of the Year
• Grace Beyond Accomplishment
• Forty Years Later, Father
• Does Ageing Hurt or the Changing Texture of Relationships
• Random Thoughts – Emotional Connections in Phases of Life
• We Are All Happy or Unhappy in Our Own Ways, but Some Inspire by Their Deeds
• In the Nature of Reflections...
• Friendships and Difficult Times
2. In Reflection
• The Delhi Gymkhana Club
• Let Us Not Become Prisoners of the Last Moment
• What Creates Emotional Turmoil Inside
• Quora – Some Thoughts This Morning
• Can AI Do Everything, can It Add to Creativity, can It Produce Writers – My Questions and AI’s Answers Summed Up
• A Peep into Personalities – My Perceptions - Right or Wrong
• Where does India Stand Globally under Narendra Modi?
• Come on, my friend… Life is Only Four Days Long, and You’ve Spent Three of them being Upset
• Political Intellect and Ideological Reflex
• Why Should Death Scare Us?
• Between Ideologies and Realities
• Nothing Pauses, Not Even for those who once Mattered Most
• American Supremacy
• Asha Bhosle
• When Teaching Becomes a Movement
• What Has Happened to Communism in India
• Serotonin
• Who Knows Tomorrow
• What is Life?
• What Does “I Love You” Really Mean?
• Emotions
• The Quiet Freedom of Not Wanting Everything
• The Scale of Our Troubles
• Irfan Khan – Six Years Today
• Rejoinder – Dr Meenakshi Seth
• Age & Death – How do We Remember Who is No Longer with Us
• Between Sleep and Death
• We Must Write
• Everything is in Mind Governing Us
• Hats Off to Our Soldiers
• Rumination
• Painful Silences in Relationships
3. In Illness
• Love, Fear and Helplessness
• What Could the Stroke Do to My Being
• Viewing Physical Constraints After Five Years
• Five Years After the Fall – 8/9th April, 2021-2026
• After the Silence of the ICU
• My Take on Doctor’s Advice to Mridula for Cataract
• Dr Meenakshi Seth’s Rejoinder
• My Rejoinder to Dr Seth’s Rejoinder
4. In Journeys and Nostalgia
• The WhatsApp Group
• Some Presences Never Leave
• A Journey to Dehradun and Mussoorie: Returning to the Self, Part 1
• A Journey to Dehradun and Mussoorie: Returning to the Self, Part 2
• On a Journey to Agra
• Journey through Times – Sheer Nostalgia, Dhanbad Day 1
• The World of Coke – Soft & Hard, Dhanbad Day 2
• Childhood, Classmates, Life, and Its Trickery
• Virasat – REACH – 30-Year Odyssey, Last Evening at the India International Centre
• ‘Dhruvswamini’ - The Celebrated Play of the Great Jaishankar Prasad - Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre
• An Evening with Men of Letters
• When Old Friends Meet Again
5. In Gratitude and Faith
• Mother’s Day
• A Visit to a Temple
• Another Day
• Mridula’s Birthday
• Birthday of Our Sons
• Fathers’ Day
• Chhath
• A Post from Dr PKS Akhauri
6. Ordinary Moments
• At the Publisher’s Place
• When “Animal” Becomes an Insult
• A Rejoinder from Dr Meenakshi Seth
• Drive to Gymkhana in Clouds
• At Gymkhana
• While Having a Haircut
• The Mobile Phone – The Creeping Impingement of the Digital World into Our Lives
• Search for Happiness Most of the Time
• Nature
Quotes
Moments Since 2021 Captured Through a Lens
Acknowledgements
Political Science
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