India, Sept. 6 -- 'Dr Saab, we will take up your seeds!' said the intrepid farmer from Jaunti, a village near Delhi. This was the turning point that the young scientist named MS Swaminathan had been waiting for. It was that leap of faith that would help him engineer the agricultural transformation christened the Green Revolution, which would be the crucial hinge on which the fortunes of the country would eventually turn. Swaminathan worked tirelessly against tremendous odds to disprove doomsday prophecies and Malthusian theories, with the idea that food and nutrition security were paramount for human progress. This moving biography captures the life and times of this extraordinary man, tracing his life from his childhood in Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu, and his early introduction to agriculture to his association with the Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug, which ultimately led to the Green Revolution. It traces how Swaminathan championed the greatest freedom of all: the freedom from hunger. The book also takes an attentive look at the various roles he juggled in his long and illustrious career: that of a conservationist, an ardent feminist, a technocrat, a lifelong Gandhian, a philosopher, a diplomat and a celebrated insti-tution-builder. This is a fitting tribute to Swaminathan in his centennial year....