Former Indian Ambassador P.R. S. Mani passed away in his sleep in Bangalore on August 24, 2011 at the age of 96.

He was born on February 14, 1915 in Chittor to P. R. Krishnan, a Deputy Collector, and Kunjamma, a housewife. One of three children, he was educated at the Board High School, Chittoor and later at Madras Christian College and Loyola College, where he received his B.A. In Madras, he joined the Theosophical Society where his circle included the dancer Rukmini Arundale and the activist Annie Besant. In 1940 he joined All India Radio, Madras, moving two years later to their office in Delhi. He worked there until January 1944, when he was commissioned into the Indian Army as a Captain, assigned to public relations. He served with the Indian Army in India, Burma, Malaya, Singapore, and Indonesia. Later he worked as a journalist with the Free Press Journal in Indonesia and in India, during the course of which he came to know Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, Sukarno, Sjahrir and Hatta. In 1949, he joined the Indian Foreign Service at the behest of Nehru. He was posted in Manila, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Goa, West Germany, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, and Sweden, from where he retired as Ambassador.  While at the External Affairs Ministry he was Joint Secretary in the Pakistan Division and later Additional Secretary (Foreign Service Inspector). In retirement, he became a Special Advisor on Foreign Affairs to the Prime Minister of Mauritius. 

Mani was a man of wide intellectual interests who had a deep knowledge of politics and diplomacy. He was fluent in eight languages, at ease in many different cultures, and was an excellent writer and public speaker. A proficient tennis player in his early days, in middle age he became an avid golfer, continuing to play into his eighties. He also practised yoga at an advanced level for most of his adult life.  He was a fine sculptor and though a man of frugal habits, something of an art collector. In addition to writing numerous newspaper articles in the 1940s, he contributed to many seminars around the world, and kept up through correspondence over the years with a wide circle of friends, including scholars, diplomats, journalists, and statesmen. In retirement he penned two books: the historical monograph ‘Story of Indonesian Revolution’, and a memoir, ‘Look Up and Aim High’. His awards included the Order of Merit conferred by the Government of Indonesia in 1995.

Mani married Saraswathi, a teacher, in 1950, and soon they had two sons. The children were taught to value curiosity, knowledge, friendship, and thoughtful speech.  Their home attracted a stream of friends and visitors from across the globe. Like her husband, Saraswathi had a flair for languages, and between them, the pair could converse in eleven different tongues. Saraswathi passed away in 1995, after which Mani was joined in Bangalore by his sister, who was his final caregiver.

He is survived by his sister, Girija Karthikeyan, his sons, Dr. Ranjit B. Mani of Rockville, MD, his wife Uma and their son Gautam, and Dr. Inderjeet Mani of Chiang Mai, his wife Asha, and their children Kailash and Parvati.