like Novartis, Ciba, Rolex, Sulzer, Schindler, Holcim, ABB, Glencore, Nestle are amongst the best in their respective fields. Swiss banks like UBS are trusted world over and gold and money from rest of the world continues to flow to these banks from all directions. People know their money is safe here. The nation’s fame extends beyond the economic realm. This nation has been a continuous democracy for last seven to eight hundred years. People are disciplined, law-abiding and peaceloving. During all these years it has never been ruled by a foreign power. Nor has this nation ever invaded any other nation. Switzerland has carefully preserved her neutrality. That is why almost 25 large international organizations like Red Cross, International Labour Organization, World Health Organization or World Trade Organization have their headquarters in this country. Geneva is the most international city but the capital is Bern. The country has four official languages – German, French, Italian and Romansh, which is spoken by a tiny minority. 64% people speak German and that also happens to be the language most widely spoken in Bern but in all International Organizations French is the language for official communication. Joshi knew French well and that was one of the reasons for his selection at UPU.
It was this writer’s good fortune during a visit to Switzerland to be able to meet Joshi’s former colleague and neighbour, Tony Der Hovesepian. We could see for ourselves their office, their homes and discover from Tony (as he is referred to in this article) a lot about Joshi’s eight-year stay. This information was of immense value since those eight years were never written about and had been almost wiped out even from Joshi’s memory, as he mentioned. My wife Varsha and a friend of ours Dr Avinash Jagtap were also with me. Dr Jagtap was originally from Pune, where his father was a renowned educationist and a Years in Switzerland
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