Sikh expatriate aims to build gurdwara in Washingt

[me moorakh mugadh]

Chandigarh, June 12 (IANS) Meet Shamser Singh Babra, by his own admission the first Sikh to join the World Bank and later the first Indian to head a division of the bank.

Babra, who has spent around five decades in the U.S., remains an Indian at heart and has not relinquished his Indian citizenship.

He visits the land of his birth at least thrice a year and spends half of his time back home.

But his mission these days is to build a gurdwara on Embassy Row near the prime Massachusetts Avenue in the American capital.

"It will also be a cultural centre not only for Sikhs but all those interested in Indian culture. It is a dream which is now becoming a reality," Babra told IANS in an interview here.

Babra worked with the World Bank for 26 years in various capacities and retired as a policy advisor in 1988.

"I first went to Britain in 1953 to study statistics after completing my master in mathematics in Delhi. Then I moved to the U.S. in 1955 and earned my doctorate in economics in Washington D.C.," said Babra.

About his World Bank days, he said, "I did everything from negotiating on the International New Economic Order and the International Commodity Agreement to economic forecasting."

He was deputed to Ghana for three years to revive its economy and he even spent a year at Oxford University in Britain as a visiting fellow.

But his long innings in the World Bank was far from being smooth.

A committee was appointed to approve his appointment with the bank since he was not fair skinned.

"One day I was sitting next to U.S. President Richard Nixon at a wedding, but the very next day I was told to leave a beach for bei

ng coloured," Babra recalled.

A classmate of former Punjab chief minister and Akali Dal leader Parkash Singh Badal, Babra was a revolutionary for two years - from 1946 to 1947.

He married an English woman, who later converted to Sikhism, and has five sons.

Asked why he never opted for American citizenship Babra said he never felt the need.

"I have a green card and my five sons were born there. Why should I give up my Indian citizenship of which I am so proud?

"Home is where the heart is. I love India, so I keep coming back here for inspiration," said Babra while stroking his white beard.