Panday takes to public platform again

COLOURFUL politician Kamal Panday will look back on almost five decades in politics when he speaks at #HashtagBooks, at the Shannon Drive Shopping Centre in Reservoir Hills, on Saturday at 2pm.

Though now officially retired, he and his wife, Dr Shobhana Panday, still keep an active social life and contact with their local community.

“We are up and about every day whether for a haircut or vegetable shopping,” said Panday.

They keep a flat in La Mercy for weekend getaways.

Panday added that local residents frequently stopped him in the street to ask when they would hear him again on a public platform.

He has been a local councillor, provincial member of the legislature and an MP.

The veteran politician says he has never lost an election because he has always had his ear to the people’s needs.

Panday’s academic wife also has a firm following among former students and relishes meeting her old university colleagues.

In 2010, he wrote his memoirs in My Political Footprints.

When invited by publisher Anivesh Singh to speak at the bookshop, Panday was soon persuaded.

“The community knows me as someone who was always in touch.

“I want to use this talk to rekindle old friendships and take a walk down memory lane,” added Panday.

Of special interest will be his relationship with the late Amichand Rajbansi, whom he had known since their school days in Clairwood.

The talk is open to the public and the book will be available at the shop.