Meeting Ramesh Krishnan

When I was waiting in line at immigration at the Madras airport on my way back to New York, India's foremost tennis player, Ramesh Krishnan, was just behind me.

I congratulated him on winning the Davis Cup, and invited him to come to our tennis ground in New York. I made a spontaneous request, and he gave an immediate acceptance.

By the time we passed through immigration, he was way ahead of me. So he came back to where I was and asked for my card. In the future I have to carry a card!

Luckily, I still had a Centre envelope. But I also wanted to give him my phone number. I had brought six or seven ballpoint pens with me; but now that I needed one, none was available. I searched and searched and finally found one. So I gave him Annam Brahma's phone number.

Then some officials came and took him through customs. He was a great man so he got special treatment. Poor me, I had to wait on line.

—30 July 1987