It’s odd how the mind works. Sometimes stray thoughts can connect with other random ones to recall memories long forgotten. There’s nothing logical about it. It just happens. The result could be pleasing. But it could also be disconcerting. That happened to me last week. Has it ever happened to you?
It started when I read that one of the gifts given by the Bidens to our Prime Minister (PM) is the first edition of the Collected Poems of Robert Frost. Prima facie, there’s nothing extraordinary about this. Frost is, perhaps, America’s most famous poet. He’s the only one to have won the Pulitzer four times. So, a first edition of his poetry would be an ideal present from an American president to an Indian PM.
But there’s a niggle. Or do I mean a quibble? Frost was, probably, Jawaharlal Nehru’s favourite poet. One of the poems in the collection gifted to Modi is Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. It ends with the following evocative lines:
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”
Nehru saw deep meaning in this passage. I’m told he copied it by hand and placed it under the glass cover on his study table. Others say it was framed and kept on the desk. There are even some who maintain he kept the collected works by his bedside and this passage was heavily underlined. Whatever the truth, it was a poem that meant a lot to him.
Now, this is not a new story. Many Indians who grew up in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s are aware of it. His biographers have written about it. It’s part of the folklore surrounding Nehru. What’s also true – and equally well-known – is that Nehru is not Modi’s favourite predecessor. Modi has made that abundantly clear. So, wasn’t this a strange book for Joe Biden to gift Narendra Modi?
Biden might not have known this himself but he would not have decided on the book on his own. Undoubtedly, there were people to advise him. People who know India well and, more importantly, who would have chosen carefully to ensure the gift pleases Modi. It’s hard to believe they aren’t aware of the Nehru-Frost connection or the Modi-Nehru discord.
So, was this really coincidental? Or a subtle unspoken message? It’s this thought that propelled my mind in a strange and uncontrolled direction. Before I knew it, I was back to 1976. To my 21st birthday, celebrated with a drinks reception – as I pretentiously called it – in Cambridge.
On that occasion, Daphne and her boyfriend Humphrey gave me a green and red striped tie. It wasn’t the sort I would wear so I put it in a drawer and forgot where it came from. Eight months later it was Humphrey’s birthday and Daphne arranged a surprise party. Forgetful and stupid, as only I can be, I decided the tie in my drawer was the perfect gift. So, I wrapped it in expensive paper and found a suitable card to go with it. And, then, I trotted off.
I’ll never forget the look on Humphrey’s face when he opened my present. That’s when the penny dropped. He’d given me the tie! Humphrey laughed. I blushed. “I guess what goes around, comes around!” Mercifully, that’s all he said.
Can you see the tentative, if tortuous, connection between Biden’s book and my tie? You could call both inappropriate, if not ill-chosen, gifts. Biden’s gaffe was nowhere as embarrassing as mine. Yet Humphrey didn’t hold it against me. Though he’s parted from Daphne, we’re still friends. When he sees me in a tie he never fails to remind me of the earlier one.
I’d love to know what Narendra Modi thinks of the Biden gift. I think the American President’s indiscretion would make him chuckle. If he ever writes his memoirs, this could be a tale to look out for.
Karan Thapar is the author of Devil’s Advocate: The Untold Story.
The views expressed are personal
