Thirty years ago, when veteran journalist Seema Sirohi first arrived in Washington DC, bilateral relations between India and the United States of America were at their worst. In the late 1980s and 1990s, the political spotlight shone favourably upon Pakistan and China. For the leader of the free world, India didn't matter. The years leading up to the twenty-first century saw the US-and the multilateral organizations of which it was a member-force India to jump through endless bureaucratic hoops. India's nuclear tests in 1998 were the final nail in its coffin, as far as the US was concerned.