This column is not to recount R N Kao’s successes or failures; he saw both in good measures. For despite the paucity, there have been some books both by his colleagues and some by later spies, one of whom had the good sense of recording him for posterity. Instead, this column is just to inspire us Indians – in a world where history is being slaughtered daily - to study our gradually eroding past. As for Rameshwar Nath Kao, in an ironic way it is befitting that a man who did his work in the shadows, remains as much a mystery in death as he was in life.