The enterprising reporter

In an interview to the Times of India earlier this week, Nobel laureate Dr Norman Borlaug, father of India's Green revolution, said there was still plenty of upside to food production in India and there was no need for panic

This report in the morning paper today took me back to an incident that flummoxed my dad. This must have been sometime in 1973-74. The Nobel laureate Dr Norman Borlaug was in our city and he was attending a conference at the University. My father was to have received him there. My brother was doing his course in journalism and was working as a reporter for a small newspaper . He desperately wanted to interview Dr Borlaug and tried hard to convince my dad to set it up. My father was known to be a stickler for rules and ensured no favours especially to anyone in the family. He refused and did not give it a second thought. Was he not in for a surprise when Dr Borlaug reached the venue (where my father was waiting to receive him) and the car stopped , the door opened and Dr Borlaug stepped out followed by my brother!! Our man had managed to meet him before his journey and my father's colleagues who recognised him had allowed him to travel with the Nobel Laurette in the car so that he could have his interview!! That was my brother those days. I wonder whether he is as enterprising and aggressive now!!