In between, he was offered the post of Scientific Advisor to then Defence Minister V.K. Krishna, with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru himself forwarding the recommendation to the UPSC, which made such senior appointments. However, the offer was a year in coming, during which Kapany had moved on.

He was later offered the position of Assistant Secretary for Commerce in the administration of Richard Nixon but this didn’t go through as he was known to be uncomfortable with the then US President.

Kapany even had an extended meeting with Daniel Patrick Moynihan when he was named the US Ambassador to India to come on board as his number two. “It was not to be the case, however, and largely, I believe, for the very trepidations he had expressed in our conversation that day: that it was simply too early in modern India’s development for a partnership such as ours,” Kapany writes.

It’s a measure of the man who was posthumously awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian award, that he has no regrets. “To the years gone by, I bid a fond farewell. For those yet to come, I welcome them, I embrace them,” Kapany wrote in the concluding chapter, titled “In Closing” that he signed off in March 2020.