Clinton clearly hopes that the work of his foundation will be the crowning achievement of his life. "I wanted to continue to be active on those things that I cared about when I was president, where I could still have an impact," he explains to me, "like HIV/AIDS, economic opportunity for poor people in America and around the world, promoting reconciliation where I could.

"I knew I had to work hard—because when I got out, I had a wife in the Senate and we had to have a home in Washington and a home here [in New York State], and I was in debt. But I thought it would have been wrong for me to spend the rest of my life just trying to amass personal wealth, because of the gift I had been given—to be able to be governor of the people of Arkansas for a dozen years, and to be able to be president for eight years. I think when you get that kind of life that's a gift of the people, you owe whatever time you have when you're finished to try to give back. And so I wanted to do it and I felt obligated to do it, and, finally, I thought it would be more interesting and more fun for me than anything else I could do. And it's turned out to be."

The global philanthropic enterprise that Clinton envisions will sustain thousands of HIV/AIDS patients, confront climate change at an emergency pace, and defy global poverty; to accomplish this, it must transform a socially insular United States, currently at the nadir of its reputation in the world. He seems to be drawing on aspects of the presidential experience to find his way into an even larger world than domestic politics would allow.

The Chennai that I glimpse on the way from the airport to the helicopter take-off and landing zone is a tropical city of pinks, oranges, and blues—the range of colors contained in flames, the right palette for this region gingery with heat even in December. Clinton is heading even farther south, to the tsunami-ravaged Cuddalore District in Tamil Nadu; this will be the first of three stops on his final visit as UN special envoy, a job whose staggering range of concerns, physical and social, and long-term aim of "building back better" has made maximum use of Clinton's persuasive administrative, intellectual, and charismatic gifts, and will surely be one of his life's monuments. His challenges have included coordinating the work of UN relief agencies with those of NGOs, businesses, international financial institutions, and governments; balancing the urgent need for shelter construction with environmental concerns; and addressing the legal problems of property ownership in the absence of records destroyed by the waves.

The Mogul influence dramatically evident in the north is replaced in the south by a substantial Christian presence, apparent in churches and surnames—it was not far from here that Saint Francis Xavier began the Jesuit mission in India. There are mimosa- and palm-shaded villas behind wrought iron gates, ample bicycle traffic, and a striking abundance of Hindu temples, so crowded with images that the buildings seem made out of the bodies of gods, painted in the colors of tropical fruits.