I had attended the last two-weeks course Tony de Mello had given in Lonavla, when two months later I received on the phone the sad news of his death. I literally went from the phone to the typewriter, and without any sketch or plane or old notes, I put on paper and sent to the press my living memories of the man who was and remains one of the most influential spiritual masters in our days. Surprisingly, no other book has been written to this day about him, not even a simple biography, and so this work continues to be, as it has been through all these years, the best available introduction to his truly remarkable life and work.