Quick Links
Connect us
Directors Databank (Empannel Yourself)
Become a 
Become a 
Blog
Become an Awards Assessor
Publications
Contact Us
IOD Announcement: Book Release - Thoughts Recollected in Tranquillity, Looking Back at Life
By- Institute of Directors | Authored by- Dr. Vivek K. Agnihotri, IAS (Retd.)
Sep 07, 2026
Most civil servants retire quietly into their memoirs. Dr. Vivek K. Agnihotri, IAS (Retd.), Director General, Golden Peacock Award Secretariat, Institute of Directors (IOD), has done something rather more interesting. He has retired into his wit.
His new book, 'Thoughts Recollected in Tranquility: Looking Back at Life,' is aptly encapsulated by a reflection: “There are moments in everyone's lives that remain in the memory, though decades may pass, moments which were very special not only at that time but years later.” What follows is less a memoir than a decade spanning conversation with himself and, by extension, with the reader.
The book moves easily between registers, from the intimacy of family to the considerably less intimate theatre of politics, both inside and outside Parliament. Its essays on retirement and ageing, subjects that most writers approach with either dread or false cheer, are handled instead with a dry, knowing humour. There is, notably, not an iota of self-pity here. Dr. Agnihotri's gaze remains objective throughout, though never so objective as to forget sympathy for ordinary human frailty or, as the book wryly reminds us, for its close cousin, human vanity.
Compiled from articles written over more than a decade, the book takes shape as a series of vignettes and observations drawn from a life spent watching institutions and individuals up close. These are rendered with the timing of someone who has learned that a well-placed observation lands harder than a grand pronouncement.
Dr. Agnihotri's career has spanned governance, public administration and parliamentary affairs. In this book, he turns that considerable vantage point inward while proving, among other things, that the driest corridors of public life can produce some remarkably sharp prose.
Back to HomeAuthor
Dr. Vivek K. Agnihotri, IAS (Retd.)
former Secy-General - Rajya Sabha, Parliament of India
Owned by: Institute of Directors, India
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the articles/ stories are the personal opinions of the author. IOD/ Editor is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, suitability, or validity of any information in those articles. The information, facts or opinions expressed in the articles/ speeches do not reflect the views of IOD/ Editor and IOD/ Editor does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.
