On a hot July day in 1964, the Grand Trunk Express from Madras Central slowly rolls out. Aboard is a nervous little Tamil boy going to Doon School — into exile, as it were. “So, your Hindi must be good,” we ask A Vellayan, Chairman of the Murugappa Group, the $3.8-billion fertiliser-to-tubes-to-sugar-to-finance conglomerate, who is telling us about his first brush with the North.

“Aath saal kaate hain, yaar,” he says, including three in Delhi, studying at Shri Ram College of Commerce. “Maheene me teen baar Dilli jaana padta hain.” Hindi test passed, but kaate hain? — he makes it sound like being sent to Kaala Pani.

We are at Raintree Hotel in Teynampet, Chennai, having a leisurely breakfast. Originally scheduled to be a lunch at Dare House, the historic headquarters of the 111-year-old M

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