Eating Out

First things first. When he goes out to lunch, Rajiv Pratap Rudy does not wear thefluorescent green kurta he sports on TV channels. I was expecting to see him in a neonattire and told him so when he walked into the Claridges lobby dressed in sober greeninstead. The 39-year-old bjp MP looked hurt: "That wasn’t a fluorescent green.It was just a little brighter than this one. But do you seriously want me to wear white onTV?"

Well, if I was not allowed to judge him by his clothes, I thought I would do so by thefood he ate. Handing him the menu at Jade Garden, the hotel’s Chinese restaurant, Iasked him if he was a rice or a noodles person? If it was rice then he’d be simplebut if he went in for noodles, he’d have a slippery element to him. Unfortunately, itdidn’t come that easy. "I eat rice in the afternoon and noodles at night,"he said. Rudy has two answers for one question. That makes him a politician, alright. Buthe is also very media-savvy—he settled for an American chopsuey as it would"photograph better"! Since Rudy usually skips lunch, food was not the mainissue.

Rudy’s very careful about what he eats. He never eats Indian food in a five-star."For me Indian food is at-home food. The one in restaurants comes swimming inoil," he said. Declining wine, Rudy opted for some nimbu-soda but wanted it mixed"half-water-half-soda". But even without the wine he became a tad philosophical."You know I am a firm believer in destiny. I never dreamt that I would be sittinghere one afternoon."

He moved on to the caramel custard. I moved on to Dil Chahta Hai. Rudy had seen thefilm the night before. Attempting another round of amateur analysis, I asked him:"Which one of the three men—Aamir, Akshay and Saif—would you identifywith?" "If you’re looking for one word to describe me, then I am a veryerratic guy!" he countered.

It probably is "erratic" for an MP to rave about scuba-diving over coffee.Then again, as I discovered during the table-talk, expect the unexpected from thissecond-term MP. I mean, one reason why he opts for tailor-made kurtas over the Fab Indiacollection is that he does not ascribe to the view that one uniform size fits all.

But this lunch took place before he became minister for industry. Now that he isoccupying real estate at Udyog Bhavan, Rudy will probably be singing the virtues of massproduction. Then again, that’s politics for you.