Sometime in late-2003, a well-placed official in the Egyptian Mukhabarat (secret police which would be the equivalent of our Intelligence Bureau) sent a message to me through another common friend: Could I meet him please? My first thought was that some act of indiscretion had been committed by me or my team at the India Centre in downtown Cairo; we had been pushing the envelope and getting away with what other centres would diligently avoid.

Was the meeting meant to convey a friendly warning? I had met this official a couple of times in private gatherings and he had been extremely warm and friendly. He knew more about Amitabh Bachchan than I could ever have claimed to know. I had gifted him with a set of Bachchan blockbusters and he had been generous with helping the centre in many ways.