Dehradun, May 28 -- Tribute to Raja Randhir Singh

Some people you meet and forget. Some people you meet and remember. And then there are those rare, luminous human beings you meet and wish - with a quiet ache that never quite leaves you - that you had found them sooner.

Raja Randhir Singh was that kind of man.

I came to know him much later in my life than I would have wished. But from the very first time I sat across from him, I knew I was in the presence of someone extraordinary not because of the titles, the medals, the Olympic blazers, or the princely lineage - though all of that was real and remarkable. I knew it because of the way he made you feel. Seen. Heard. Valued. As if you were the most interesting person in the room, when i...