Deceptive Calm

to fry old rice again and again. He said that he did not believe in that practice. It is strange but true that while the signs of thaw were generally visible nothing much in concrete terms has been achieved yet. The prime minister has agreed to visit China. In a couple of news items following the talks it looked as if the visit might in fact take place sometime in 1988. Given his penchant for signing accords, he would want to go there only if he could sign a nice-looking, well-written document. But for his verbosity K Natwar Singh might in fact be the man to draft a neat, readable accord. If he did, Rajiv Gandhi might finally sign an accord which would actually work. But then one will have to wait and see. If we let go this opportunity the Chinese may not like to fry old rice once again or, if you prefer an Indian proverb, to boil the stale curry once again.