"He (Chandraswamy) gave Mrs. Thatcher (Former UK PM Margaret Thatcher) five strips of paper and requested her to write a question on each. She obliged, but with scarcely camouflaged irritation. Chandraswamy asked her to open the first paper ball. She did. He gave the text of the question in Hindi. I translated. Correct. I watched Mrs Thatcher. The irritation gave way to curiosity. Next question. Again bull's eye. Curiosity replaced by interest. By the fourth question the future iron lady's demeanour changed. She began to look at Chandraswamy not as a fraud, but as a holy man indeed. "

An excerpt from Walking with Lions Tales from a Diplomatic Past by K Natwar Singh, a former senior bureaucrat and former union minister. Read more here.