In the beautiful summer term of 1989 when I was at Magdalen College Oxford, I got an unexpected phone call from India. It was Dileep Padgaonkar calling to say that he would be visiting Oxford to interview Sir Isaiah Berlin, then a fellow at All Souls College and would I like to come with him to meet the legendary philosopher and historian?
An audience with Sir Isaiah was every student’s dream and I naturally jumped at the opportunity, thinking how generous it was for a high- flying editor- in- chief to ask a mere graduate student to accompany him on an important interview. Knowing Dileep as I did, I also felt deeply touched that he had recognized the unspoken comradeship that Read More