TOI correspondent from Washington: In the summer of 1976, a Kanpur-born teenage engineering student from BITS Pilani stood in the lobby of the US embassy in New Delhi after being denied a student visa for the third time. His father, who had accompanied him, refused to leave. He had seen the photo of the consular officer in the lobby, gleaned that he was out for lunch, and decided he would wait to buttonhole him to ask why his son was being denied the visa despite confirmed admissions to three universities and all documentation in order. The persistence worked. Half a...