Dadabhai Naoroji, Aurobindo Ghose, Balgangadhar Tilak, Rabindranath Tagore, Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Azad, Vallabhai Patel and of course, Mahatma Gandhi, are familiar faces in Indian history, especially regarding the struggle for independence. But there are also men, belonging to another generation, who helped carry the country over the stormy waters of transition, the blood-letting of Partition and the general civic unrest that attends the birth of a great democratic nation. H.M. Patel is one such forgotten hero: one of the men who presided with commitment, care and wisdom over the fragile, early decades of the infant republic. Midwifery, Socrates said, is a humble vocation. It seeks no praise for itself but quietly serves the greatness that is waiting to be born.