How Madhuri Dixit 'stopped' Vajpayee

New Delhi, July 17: As Vajpayee breathed his last yesterday, close aides and journalists recalled his fondness for gastronomical delights particularly sweets and sea food, his favourite being a platter of prawns.

in this regard, Senior journalist Rasheed Kidwai remembered how while attending an official lunch, Vajpayee, then the prime minister, was headed for the food counter even though he was on a strict diet.Anxious aides then struck on a plan. They immediately introduced him to Madhuri Dixit who was in attendance, and soon the film buff in Vajpayee took over as the two went on to talk about movies.

"Meanwhile, the aides quickly removed the desserts from his line of vision," recalled Kidwai.

Bureaucrats who worked with Vajpayee said that wherever he went he insisted on tasting the local cuisine. "So it was puchkas in Kolkata, biriyani and halim in Hyderabad, Galoti kebabs in Lucknow. He specially liked his pakodas with lots of chat masala accompanied with masala tea," said one bureaucrat.