Pm Hosts Tamil Lunch For Kalam

The swaying palms were missing and there was no roar of the ocean breaking on the sand.

But barring the sun and the sand, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee brought Tamil Nadu into his dining room today.

To make President APJ Abdul Kalam feel at home, he hosted an exclusive south Indian lunch for him at Panchavati, the small dining room at 7 Race Course Road, to which just a handful of politicians were invited.

Kalam, reportedly, said little beyond smiling and tossing his locks. But as they were waited upon by attendants dressed in white mundus (dhoti) and short white jackets that is customary in south India, the Prime Ministers guests enjoyed avial (vegetables cooked with coconut and curds), sambar, royadu vepudu (prawns cooked in the Andhra style), rawa meen (fish curry), kozhi kuttan (chicken Kerala style) and elumichham pazham saadham (lemon rice).

The lunch was a departure from protocol - no Prime Minister in the past 55 years has ever hosted a meal at his home for the President.

But it did convey a political message