I visited the ‘father of the Zambian nation’ and ‘Gandhi of Africa,’ Dr. Kenneth Kaunda (b. 1924), at his home outside Lusaka. Born to a missionary teacher, Reverend David Kaunda, he started his career as a teacher before getting involved in the struggle for independence from British rule. Later, he founded the Zambian African National Congress, and eventually won independence for his country. In 1964, Dr. Kenneth Kaunda became the first President of independent Zambia and served as Head of the State till 1991.

Saddened by one of his children being claimed by HIV/AIDS in the 1980s, Dr. Kaunda did not hide it out of fear of shame or stigma, but courageously faced the reality of HIV/AIDS and zealously worked in the fight against the spread of the pandemic and considered an Indian contribution in developing low-cost antiretroviral drugs. Indian triple-therapy drug ‘cocktails’ for $350 a year keep HIV-infected patients alive for years. When we met, he got up from his chair and blessed me, reciting the Biblical Prayer, while holding his hand on my head, “For you bless the righteous, O Lord; you cover him with as with a shield.” My eyes welled up with tears and I sent a silent prayer to God to protect him too.

I met Prof. C.N.R. Rao (b. 1934) during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations of the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad. Conferred with a Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award in India, in 2013, Rao Sir serves as the Head of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India.

One of the world’s foremost solid state and materials chemists, C.N.R. Sir laments the narrowing of vision among young scientists. He says, “Most of them work for ‘problems of their thesis, project or research grants”. Science does not move on that; this kind of work drags organisations and produces laggards.

The future is to synthesise photosynthesis and generate energy from the sun, as plants do. Fuels like hydrogen or ethanol could be produced ultimately via solar power, as in artificial photosynthesis, so we could continue using liquid fuels with less environmental damage. Let us create a “bionic leaf” that can convert solar energy into hydrogen!

Life unfolds itself through you. There is no rationale behind how I met diamond baron Govindbhai Dholakia, Chairman, Shree Ramkrishna Export (SRK), of Surat. It was 2012, and my friend Mani Iyer, who was trying to start a technology incubation fund, took me to him seeking investment. The fund never materialized but I became a buddy of Govindbhai in this process.

Govindbhai’s rags to riches story enchanted me and I found his practical philanthropy unbelievable. I shared this with Dr Kalam, who came to Surat and met Govindbhai. This meeting led to the creation of the SRK Knowledge Foundation and SRK-Kalam Healthcare project, which was India’s first population health study that covered 100,000 people in the Amreli district of Saurashtra, Gujarat, at their doorstep.

Govindbhai constituted the ‘Santokbaa Humanitarian Award’ in the memory of his mother. It was conferred upon luminaries every year since 2006, including Sam Pitroda (2006), Verghese Kurien (2008), MS Swaminathan (2011), Lord Bhikhu Parekh (2013) and Dalai Lama (2014), amongst others.

In 2016, the Award was conferred upon Ratan Tata. As he was unable to come to Surat at that time (he visited later), Govindbhai took me to Mumbai to personally give him the award (statuette seen on the table) and a cheque of Rupees 1 crore. For me, meeting Ratan Tata was like a dream come true. When I presented my book, ‘APJ Abdul Kalam: A Life’ to him, Ratan Tata said after a long pause, “After JRD, it was Dr Kalam who understood India correctly.”

Accompanied by my wife, Anjana, the young Kenyan-Indian, Dil Patel, and our Swiss host, Stefan Müller, I visited the Einsteinhaus (Einstein House), a former residence of Albert Einstein in Bern, Switzerland, which has been converted into a museum. Bearing No. 49, it is a small house built over a shop in a long shopping lane called Kramgasse (Grocers’ Alley) in the Old City of Bern, very much like Chandani Chowk in Delhi or Pathargatti in Hyderabad.

Einstein lived here with his wife Mileva from 1903 to 1905 and wrote the four articles that created the foundation of modern physics and changed views on space, time, mass and energy. He was only 26 then. Working for the Swiss Patent Office while pursuing his Ph.D, as he could not find a teaching post at the University of Zurich to support himself, Einstein could not have afforded a better place to live in. Einstein was fond of writing while standing, or perhaps, there was not much room for a table and chair. The stand in the picture is the one actually used by him.

Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921, but history would soon intervene. The Nazis were on the rise in his native Germany, and Einstein, a Jew, was persecuted. More for his personal safety, Einstein moved to the United States in 1933, and worked at the Princeton University for the rest of his days. In 1999, the Time magazine named Albert Einstein the Person of the Century. Einstein famously said, “Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” Standing where Einstein once stood, I had goosebumps on my arms. Even today, the memory of it sends a thrill up my spine.

I met the American economist, Joseph Stiglitz (b. 1943), in Seychelles. Winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, Joseph Stiglitz declared that capitalism and globalization had failed to sustain standards of living for most citizens and that the worst sufferer was the middle class of Europe and the United States. Workers had helplessly seen their wages fall and jobs disappear. It was no big secret that global trade deals, hammered out in secret by the multinational corporations, were meant for corporate profits and the economic growth of people and even business. Greed eclipsed all principles of the market economy.

 When a person in the audience asked, “What would happen if Donald Trump (b. 1946) becomes the President of the USA?” Joseph Stiglitz crisply replied, “The US system is bigger than the whims and fancies of individual leaders. Had it allowed Barack Obama (b. 1961) to go beyond a point with what he wanted?” I was wondering at the way Indian leaders project themselves as the movers and shakers, and the realism of what Joseph Stiglitz was talking about.

I met the veteran African leader and former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo (b. 1937), at the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) Annual General Meeting of shareholders in Seychelles. Mahesh Patelji, Chairman of the Export Trading Group (ETG), one of Africa’s largest agricultural conglomerates, and my friend, invited me there.

President Obasanjo fondly recalled his training at the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, India, in 1965 as a young military officer. In 1970, Obasanjo defeated the Biafran separatist state and ended the Nigerian Civil War. In February 1976, he took over as the Military Ruler of Nigeria after President Murtala Muhammed was killed in a failed coup, but three years later, handed over power to the newly elected civilian president, Shehu Shagari. Almost two decades later, Obasanjo returned as the democratically elected President of Nigeria and ruled for two terms (1999–2007).

Indians are good people, he said joyously, and asked me to sit by his side, holding my hand. There is something that leaders have in them, which followers do not, I mused, surprised by the warmth of his gesture and the firm grip of his hand even at nearly 80 years of age.