For a while, their differences over the nuclear deal took a back seat as PM Manmohan Singh and his dinner guests tucked into the famous Bengali delicacy, the hilsa fish.
NEW DELHI: For a while, their differences over the nuclear deal took a back seat as PM Manmohan Singh and his dinner guests on Friday, external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee and West Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, tucked into the famous Bengali delicacy, the hilsa fish.
It was the piece de resistance of the traditional Bengali meal the PM ordered to woo the man he hoped would help break the impasse with the Left. As true blue Bengalis are wont to do, Bhattacharya and Mukherjee broke into their mother tongue in praise of the flavour and quality of the fish they were eating. The nuclear issue was forgotten.
If the PM felt a bit left out of this Bengali bonding, he didn’t seem to mind. Although increasingly a vegetarian by choice, he too seemed to relish the hilsa and ate to his heart’s content.
It was a typically Bengali menu with two kinds of fish, doi maachh (fish in a yoghurt-based gravy) and ileesh paturi (hilsa coated with a mustard paste and steamed in a banana leaf). The dessert consisted of various kinds of sandesh and of course, mishti doi (sweetened yoghurt), without which a Bengali meal is incomplete.
Little wonder that when Bhattacharya emerged from the dinner, which lasted one hour and forty minutes, he was beaming. ``Khuub bhaalo (very good),’’ he declared to waiting reporters. In hindsight, it was obviously a comment about the dinner, not the meeting. Both the hilsa and the persuasive powers of the PM and Mukherjee failed to sway Bhattacharya who after all, is bound by his party line.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}