“Tell me what you want to know, young man.” It is an innocuous command, couched in a way that both delights and compels the listener, and is an accurate reflection of the former Chief Justice of India, MN Venkatachaliah. We had met a few weeks earlier at the launch of Indu Malhotra’s book and now we were sitting face to face at his Bangalore residence in one of the older parts of the city.