New Delhi, March 1 -- I have been studying South Asian regional cooperation since the initiative taken by Bangladesh President General Ziaur Rahman in 1980. I co-authored a book with my wife Anuradha titled Regional Cooperation in South Asia (National Publishing House, New Delhi, 1984), much before the establishment of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) as an institution in 1985. In anticipation of the summit, I was contemplating ways to raise funds to go to Dhaka when Nikhil Chakravartty, Editor of Mainstream Weekly, invited me to observe the SAARC summit on behalf of his magazine. I readily agreed and received Rs 25,000 in cash from him for my expenses, with more than half of it being spent on travel arrangemen...