India, May 19 -- MS Swaminathan's wife, Mina, is your father's first cousin. Were you not worried about the book being hagiographical since you were writing about your uncle?

No, I wasn't. But I've had some readers say that he has been portrayed as mostly white, with very slim shades of grey. At the same time, many people have told me that they learned new things from the book. I have accepted that you cannot please them all. And, honestly, I wasn't aiming to please anybody. I just wanted to put the facts out there, in terms of the political compulsions behind the Green Revolution and everything that he did. My greatest belief is that he was far more than an agricultural scientist, and wore many hats with great aplomb. It is time we reco...