Vignettes
from
Books by Mahesh Buch

When The Harvest Moon Is Blue

An unusual Autobiography

“… somewhat autobiographical without being an autobiography.”

“… it is Mahesh Buch in his most irreverent moments. For this I offer no apologies, but I do assure my readers that nothing I have stated is apocryphal or deliberately untrue. If there is some exaggeration, well, that is an old man’s prerogative. What interest does an unembellished story hold? But even this ornamentation, I promise you, is credible.”

Civil Servants with a swollen head

“Most civil servants have a somewhat exaggerated notion of their own importance in the scheme of things and the role that they play in shaping the nation.”

“Just as no one can choose the place, time and family of birth, the average civil servant does not decide his own posting.”

CM’s wife contracts jaundice

“By this accident of illness of the Chief Minister’s wife, I was launched on a career which, quite undeservedly, has won me the reputation of being an urban planner, administrator, and environmental expert. Supposing the lady had not contracted jaundice?”

A wonderful life

“It has been a wonderful life, in a marvellous country, amongst the most lovable people in the world, a life into which I would be prepared to be born again and again and for which I would even forego ultimate moksha.”

Humour in government

“Madhya Pradesh has always been relaxed in the matter of humour in government, but never as much as when Ron Noronha ruled the Civil Service as Chief Secretary.

My wife, Nirmala (we were not married then) was D.C. in Dewas, my friend, R.P. Kapur was D.C. in Indore and I was in Ujjain. Ron sent a circular letter to all Commissioners and D.C.s saying that he was very pleased with Raisen, Sehore and Hoshangabad Districts for the amount of wheat they had procured. Ujjain, Dewas and Indore had done reasonably well and other districts needed to pull up their socks.

Nirmala, R.P. Kapur and I wrote a joint letter to Noronha protesting that our efforts were much better than that of the top districts if we took into account the actual per acre procurement in the net sown area.

Ron replied, "My dear Nirmala, R.P., Mahesh, your letter reminds me of a story of Napoleon, who praised the chef's main course. On this the chef stormed into banquet hall, threw his toque on the floor and said, "Your Majesty, the soup was also magnificent but you did not praise it. Well, the three of you consider your soup and whatever else you want as praised."

(Chapter 4: The Eccentrics)

Foes (Chapter 16)

“This should be one of the shortest chapters ever written. Regarding foes i am like that centenarian who was being felicitated on his century. When asked whether he had any enemies he said, "Nary a one. Buried the lot of them."

Same here, too. But if I did have enemies I would agree with Heinrich Heine who said, "One should forgive one's enemies but not before they are hanged."”

An India Reimagined

“India is completely different [from the city state of Singapore]. There is a paradox of people who are personally very clean and fastidious about body hygiene, clothes and the spotless cleanliness of the inside of their house, particularly the kitchen, combined with an appalling sense of civic indifference and social irresponsibility. The house must be clean but it is all right to throw garbage on the streets.”

When in Doubt

'When I am in doubt I refer to the Constitution, a practice I would [re]commend to all civil servants.'

Quitting the IAS

“I served under the IAS for twenty-eight years and left eight years before my date of retirement. I left the service on an issue where I totally disagreed with the chief minister because I was convinced that he wanted me to do something which was contrary to the law ....”

Of Man and His Settlements

“I had a constant refrain in the past, committed to paper and conveyed orally to the then Cabinet Secretary, that senior officers must quit when they are asked to compromise on matters of principle or when their advice is no longer heard. When I came to a similar cross-road I could do no better than to follow the advice that I had given to others. I quit.

“He kept faith.”

I have had 28 lovely years in the IAS, perhaps the finest service in the world. These were years when I came to know our people and our country and had, in some small measure, the opportunity to serve them. I hope my epitaph will read, "He kept faith.""

Planned urban development

"In this country we have the choice either of being swamped by an unplanned process of urban growth, or of planning urban development by deliberate policy so that urbanization becomes an instrument of economic development and social change."

Planning the Indian City

“The cities in India have developed a culture in which the migrant, the urban poor, the casually employed and the economically down-trodden are subjected to human indignity and discomfort on a horrendous scale.”

The Forests of Madhya Pradesh

“The great river systems of India owe an enormous debt to the high-lands of Central India, but more than that, to the forests which clad these hills. Every tree cut in Madhya Pradesh is not so much a loss to the State but a direct blow to the water regime of the States which benefit from the flow of the rivers emanating from here.”

Books by Mahesh N. Buch

1.   Planning the Indian City, 1987

2.   Of Man and His Settlements, 1991

3.   The Forests of Madhya Pradesh, 1991

4.   When the Harvest Moon is Blue, 2008

5.   An India Reimagined, 2019

Note: No. 5 is a collection of 20 essays by M. N. Buch, Edited by N. Ravichandran, and published posthumously.

Heaven’s New Citizen

Link for an article written by this blogger in remembrance of M. N. Buch:

https://www.pkdash.in/2022/10/mahesh-neelkanth-buch.html

10^th Mahesh Buch Memorial Lecture

The 10^th Mahesh Buch Memorial Lecture was held on 5^th  October, 2025 at Bhopal. Prof. Kapil Gupta, IIT, Mumbai spoke on Strategies for Urban Flood Mitigation in Changing Climate. He discussed the challenges and solutions for urban flooding in Mumbai, and other cities in India and the world.

Shri S. N. Mishra, Chairman, State Administrative Unit Reorganisation, MP Chaired the meeting.

About Mahesh Buch

Dr. Mahesh Neelkanth Buch

Born – 5^th October, 1934

Education: -

·       Graduated in 1954 with Economics from St. Stephen’s College, New Delhi.

·       Post Graduate from Cambridge University in 1956

·       Parvin Fellow (during 1967-68) at the Woodrow Wilson School of the Princeton University.

·       Doctorate (Honoris Causa) from the Rajiv Gandhi Technical University in 2002.

Career :

·       Joined the IAS in 1957

·       Took voluntary retirement in 1984

Key Assignments:

·        Commissioner, Tribal Welfare, Housing, Forests and Town country planning, Govt of Madhya Pradesh

·        Vice Chairman - Delhi Development Authority

·        Director General of the National Institute of Urban Affairs

·        Principal Secretary, Forest, Government of Madhya Pradesh

·        Vice-Chairman - National Commission on Urbanization

·        Chairman - Lutyens Bungalow Zone Committee of the Government of India.

·        Chairman - Committee on the Heritage Zone of Mehrauli

·        Chairman - Empowered Committee for the New Vidhan Sabha building in Madhya Pradesh

·        Dean - Centre for Governance and Political Studies

·        Chairman - Atal Bihari Vajpayee Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management, Gwalior

·        Founding Chairman - National Centre for Human Settlements and Environment from 1984 until his death in 2015.

Awards:

• Padma Bhushan - 2011
• Man of Vision Award - the Hindustan Times - 2003
• Aga Khan Award for Architecture- 1998
• UNEP Award – 1995

Authored Books:

S. No.	Title of Book	Publisher	Year of Publication
1.	Planning the Indian City	Vikas Publishing House	1987, 1987 (2nd Impression), 2016 (3rd Impression)
2.	The Forests of Madhya Pradesh	Madhya Pradesh, Madhyam (English)	1991 (1st Edition)
3.	Of Man and His Settlements	Sanchar Publishing House	1991
4.	The Forests of Madhya Pradesh (Translated by Mr. Kalidatt Jha)	Madhya Pradesh, Madhyam (Hindi)	1992 (1st Edition)
5.	Urbanisation in India Basic Services & People’s Participation Authored by: K.C. Sivaramakrishnan, Biplab Dasgupta & M.N. Buch	Concept Publishing Co	1993
6.	When The Harvest Moon is Blue	Har Anand Publication	2008
7.	An India Reimagined – Governance and Administration in the World’s Largest Democracy Edited by N. Ravichandran	Penguin Random House	2019

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