'Has Tagore written anything on the Budget?'

The month is not yet over but Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has instructed his office to turn the leaf on his wall calendar to display the month of July. "What is the use of looking at June? I need to look at July," Mukherjee told them.

The man, known for his planning, will not only have to table his first full Budget after a gap of 25 years in July, but will also have to ensure the Appropriation Bills, the Finance Bill and the various Demands for Grants are all passed by Parliament before July 31 to prevent another Vote on Account.

Most of the Budget work is done; only some "final touches" remain. For those, he will soon sit with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh--who was governor of the Reserve Bank during Mukherjee's stint in North Block in the 80s--before his draft speech goes to print.

In the run-up to this Budget, the guarded minister has issued a written order that no journalists or new guests will be allowed to meet him till the Budget is presented. A select group of visitors (mainly government officers and ministers) are permitted to see him and that too, only on urgent issues.

Ask him anything about the Budget and you will get a wordless smile or snub depending on the condition of his "anger nerve". Would Mukherjee quote Rabindranath Tagore, Bengal's favourite poet? "Has Tagore written anything on the Budget?" he asks, tongue in cheek. "I quoted Tagore in my first budget speech. And Tagore's poems can be used on all occasions."

Among the few visitors allowed is railway minister Mamata Banerjee, a regular, calling on him late in the evening and forcing Mukherjee's political aides to stay back till 1 a m when such meetings are held.

All the same, age is slowly catching up with Mukherjee's workaholism. So his worried wife, Suvra, occasionally peeps into his chamber to find out when her husband will have his lunch. These days he has his lunch after 2 pm and dinner not before 1 am.