On a damp August evening in Mumbai in 1984, 20-year-old Mahesh Shetty was finding it hard to sleep. He looked at the train ticket to Chennai and thought of what a youngster had affectionately told him earlier that day. “Sir, we will miss you if you decide to leave.” The Chennai trip was for the final interview to join the armed forces; the alternative was to stay back in Mumbai and continue teaching at a local coaching institute. By the time Shetty closed his eyes, his mind was made up.