Every word he pronounced in his clipped British accent, over the crackle of the radio, was accepted as the absolute colour of truth. In those pretelevision days, millions of Indians hung on his every word—as he engaged with wars and disasters, announcements and deaths, upheavals and turmoils— yes, it was always the dependable voice of Mark Tully. Though he was born in Tollygunge, Kolkata and spent his first ten years in India, his ardent love affair with the country began in 1965 when he joined the BBC in their administrative department in New Delhi. And in his inimitable style, Mark Tully says, “I arrived with the Tashkent agreement.” (We like this veteran broadcast journalist for his dramatic statements.) Working out of the administrative department he first began to do pre-recorded programmes and “it was infrequent.” He explains that in those days to do a live programme was difficult. “The telephone connectivity was haphazard and it was not easy.” After covering mu