Hello, Is that Mr Pillai? Can you come down to meet the CM on Monday morning?" This was the first phone call I got from Narendra Modi's office on a Saturday afternoon in 2012. The person on the other side was from the secretariat of the then chief minister's office. Since I am a Malayalee, he started speaking to me in Malayalam. Confused and excited, since I had not sought an appointment with Modi, I asked what the agenda was.

"He received your book, Corporate Chanakya, and wanted to discuss some ideas with you," was the reply. I realised one of my Gujarati friends must have sent my book to him as a gift. Monday morning, I reached his residence in Gandhinagar. He arrived on time. I was impressed that he had carried my book with him. He had made some notes and marked some pages. As it was my first book, I was quite excited that a chief minister was taking it seriously.