“Much to Modi’s chagrin…”
“Yeah, he is still angry at the lunch invite by the US President to our Chief of Army Staff…”
“Indeed but that is dated, in foreign relations especially with Trump in the White House two months is more than enough time for a sea change in relations…”
“But the sea change hasn’t happened.”
“True but when I said much to Modi’s chagrin I was referring to the visit of our Foreign Minister to Bangladesh – remember the time when the Bengalis hated us and in the wise words of our Interior Minister the ending of Indo-Bangladesh relations was aik Sheikh Hasina ki maar…which when translates means one Sheikh Hasina was enough to overturn over fifty years of good relations…”
“Hmmmmm, I was watching Western mainstream media, and they were saying that the Pakistani prime minister should have gone to Bangladesh instead of the Foreign Minister…”
“Hey, what do they know who has the ears of the powerful.”
“Excuse me, but Shehbaz Sharif was always a favourite with the stakeholders, I don’t think any other member of that party…”
“I meant the party leader, Nawaz Sharif.”
“Right, but I thought whoever is on the seat controls the…”
“Not quite in this case. Anyway, that’s not what I was referring to when I said, much to Modi’s chagrin. Our esteemed Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister offered the Bangladeshis training in hockey.”
“Ooops. Does he know that our hockey team has come down in world ranking considerably – we aren’t even in the top ten…”
“When did that happen? And why wasn’t the Deputy Prime Minister informed?”
“The Secretary of the Foreign Ministry must be fired for this…this…”
“He is connected, how about an additional…”
“Nope, has to be the Secretary.”
“You can’t fire secretaries, I think - you can transfer them or OSD them…”
“OSD as in off to serious dillydallying!”
“Or, as we say in Urdu khudda line…a line straight into a deep pit.”
“Let me think about it.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025