Nothing could have illustrated the transformation in Kuldip’s professional persona more than his candid ‘Status of Hindi’, one of the more evocative chapters in his narrative. He writes of the time when the reorganisation of states, largely along linguistic lines, was more or less complete but language remained a live and emotive issue. For, the Constitution had decreed the replacement of English by Hindi as the official language by January 26, 1965. Non-Hindi-speaking states refused to tolerate this and bluntly said so to the Official Language Commission. The Constitution also required that a parliamentary committee examine the commission’s report and make its recommendations to the two Houses.