Dhaka, April 18 -- I once asked my father who a profound person is. "He is a person who understands his insignificance in the grand scheme of things," my father replied.

I was in my early-20s then, and somewhat confident about my ability to succeed in the Darwinian struggle of ideas that qualifies a human being for survival in the battles of everyday life. I had been born in Kolkata to a Barrister, had gone to two top-rated English-medium schools, had graduated with Honours in English from Presidency College, and was working for The Statesman, which was royalty among the nobility of Indian newspapers.

By contrast, my father was a village-born and Bengali- educated peasant's son who went on to graduate in Law from Jesus College, Cambridg...