Krishnan Srinivasan's exceptionally frank memoir of his tenure as Foreign Secretary narrates his impressions of the personalities he encountered, and of the topics in foreign policy that arose in the early 1990s and which would remain on India's agenda for the subsequent two decades. The volume also offers an analysis of the origin, hey-day and decline of the practice of non-alignment, along with penetrating short takes on contemporary events from as far afield as in the United States of America in the West to Japan in the East; and for the general reader, reflections on caste, charity and competitiveness. The volume closes with a short story about the reminiscences of a colourful retired diplomat.