It was like any other day on the Anna University campus in Chennai. As I was returning to my room in the evening the vice-chancellor Prof. A. Kalanidhi fell in step with me.Someone had been frantically trying to get in touch with me through the day he said. Indeed the phone was ringing when I entered the room.When I answered a voice at the other end said 'The prime minister wants to talk with you.' Some months earlier I had left my post as Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India