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Dining With A VVIP's Daughter-in-law At the reception hosted by India's ambassador at the Ritz Hotel in Lisbon, one spotted a middle-aged, very tall, well-built, sophisticated looking Indian woman, clad suitably in an all-black western suit and moving about with grace, and handling her glass of drink with élan. Indian men who were not as tall as her, it seemed, made efforts not to go anywhere near her. Only two were spotted striking a conversation with her. Incidentally, both of them were taller than her. One was Ajay Piramal, the other, a senior official of Air-India who shall remain unnamed here. (Actually, there was a third guy too who chatted her up). Her illustrious surname stoked the third guy's curiosity. He wanted to shoot a few pix, but the lady politely refused to get photographed. Conversation that ensued inevitably turned to her illustrious surname. Her eyebrows arched, she shrugged. A second later, she admitted that she is indeed related to a top Cabinet minister. The next moment, she said, "Well, I'm his daughter-in-law." The Air-India official became more courteous suddenly. The conversation among the threesome swung from cricket match-fixing to Wimbledon to Hrithik Roshan to Web-based tutorials for learning classical Indian music, dance forms and religious rituals to how some people (don't) like to leverage their connections/relations with VVIPs, how they would like to stand on their own. Her business card identified her as a top lawyer working for a European legal firm which advises several energy industry MNCs doing business with India. Spotlight on Portugal
But all these still do not add up to explain sufficiently why India accords added significance to this Western European country. One reason could be that Portugal is believed to be involved in some kind of deal with Pakistan for selling submarines of 1960s vintage. A Portuguese strategic affairs expert told this correspondent that India may be concerned over this matter. "Pakistan is merely playing a numbers game. These old submarines may not give Pakistan any strategic advantage. But the fact that it can claim it has X number of submarines in its arsenal has its own advantages. This will, in turn, give a chance to India's defence forces to demand higher budgetary allocations because they have to match the enemy in the neighbourhood. India would not only like to maintain friendly ties with other countries but also keep a hawk's eye on what its enemies are upto. This should explain why India is keen on keeping Portugal in good humour." However, Portuguese Prime Minister Guterres told this correspondent that he has "no idea" about deals with Pakistan.
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Here's more on Portugal. Goa was its territory
till 1961. The Portuguese's links with India are
centuries old. From January 1 to June 30,
Portugal was the leader of the European Council,
the legislative wing of the European Union. There
is still a sizable Indian community living in
Portugal. (For instance, five wealthy brothers Dr
H V Khimjee, Sesicante Valabhadas and three
others run Tejo Brinde LDA, a firm that sells
promotional goods.) Some of the Goans had made a
demand in 1996 that they be given dual
citizenship of Portugal and India. Portugal does
have bilateral trade with India. Portugal has
assured its support to India in its fight for a
permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
Portugal offers a host of funding support and
post-doctoral fellowships to Indian scholars and
scientists.