It had been a hectic morning, crammed with meetings that had us careening all over Cairo. On the best of days, traffic in that city can be maddening. On bad days, it’s enraging. And then there are days when you just resign yourself to fate and contemplate on the higher meaning of life as all life comes to a standstill in a sea of stalled traffic showing little or no signs of early resuscitation.

At the Indian mission we would factor in the worst case scenario while preparing for ‘VIP’ visits. Getting an appointment with a high ranking official, leave alone a Minister, was a difficult task; missing that appointment was akin to kissing away future appointments. Hence extra precaution would be taken to ensure visiting VIPs were not late for meetings, although that left our netas, used to as they are with delayed arrivals, none too happy.
So there we were racing to keep our appointment with President Hosni Mubarak at the grand Presidential Palace. Managing a large group of MPs, with its quota of stragglers, can be a tiresome affair. Believe me. I had made the mistake of letting it be known that Pramod Mahajan, who was heading the parliamentary delegation that had decided to swing by Cairo, and many of the MPs were personal friends. Promptly the task of shepherding them around was passed on to me.