One South African family’s links to Salzburg Global over the years remain a fond point of conversation for them

For the Reddy family, memories at Salzburg Global Seminar are a shared point of excitement.

Jairam, the distinguished academic, and Govin, the affable activist. Govin’s son Sudeshan fondly recounts how thrilled his father and uncle were about his first visit to Salzburg in 2013, when he became a part of the core group that founded the Salzburg Global LGBT* Forum.

“There was a real excitement and pleasure; wow, we are doing the same things, and yet we are doing it totally differently,” he told Salzburg Global from Pretoria, South Africa.

Both Jairam and Govin visited Salzburg Global multiple times, in their different capacities, very distinct from one another. Jairam, first, as a trailblazer working in the reform of higher education in South Africa both before and after the end of apartheid in the country. Followed later Govin, as a media worker and pioneer doing work in that field across Africa and Europe.

Speaking with Salzburg Global, Jairam, now 85, called his visits to and association with Salzburg a “hugely important learning experience”, and “highlight of [his] life.”

“I am writing my memoirs now, and one chapter is going to be on Salzburg,” he said from his home in Durban, South Africa. “It was a very rich part of my post-academic life and a very nice topping-up of my career before I retired from close to 50 years of academic life.”

Govin sadly passed away in 2017. Sudeshan’s introduction came through his own network connections, and his involvement with the LGBT* Forum – which has brought him to Salzburg three times, and taken him to cities across the world – continues today.

“Despite the generational gaps between the three of us, I think we all appreciated the cocoon that Salzburg is of stimulating thought,” said Sudeshan.

Of the 11 Reddy siblings, Govin was the youngest, while Jairam was among the elders. But the family is close, and Sudeshan recounts a visit to Durban last year where he had tea with his uncle, and the two reminisced about their visits to Salzburg over the years.

“If anything is remarkable about Salzburg, it’s how everything stays the same.”