n. In New York, Anna met the United Nations secretary-general, U. Thant. The UN head’s Chef de Cabinet, C.V. Narasimhan of Madras, a crusty Tamil Brahmin and a formidable figure whom I had the privilege of knowing in his last years, accompanied Anna to U. Thant. Narasimhan might have been expected to look askance at the Dravidian firebrand, but the 59- year-old Anna disarmed them both. He told the secretary-general that more than 2,000 years ago the Tamil poet Kaniyan Poongunranar had espoused the UN idea of universalism in his lines ‘Yaadhum oore, yaavarum kelir’ meaning ‘to us all places are one, all men our kin’