India, Nov. 28 -- He had ceased to communicate about a year ago. By which I mean, he had stopped replying to mails and messages. This was uncharacteristic of PS Raghavan.

Ambassador PS Raghavan, Indian Foreign Service, 1979, as he was properly described in formal parlance, had been a friend since the summer of 1992 - London being the place where we first met. I had just shown up at India House to set up its Nehru Centre in the High Commission's stately office-cum-residential building on South Audley Street. High commissioner LM Singhvi welcomed me with a warm embrace in his sumptuous room - which had a gleaming floor of polished wood on which one could slip, literally and metaphorically. No sooner was I seated in a green leather-bound ch...