{"id":65678,"date":"2009-09-19T20:36:57","date_gmt":"2009-09-19T20:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/test.tehelka.com\/?p=65678"},"modified":"2009-09-19T20:36:57","modified_gmt":"2009-09-19T20:36:57","slug":"chariots-still-afire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/chariots-still-afire\/","title":{"rendered":"Chariots Still Afire"},"content":{"rendered":"

YOU WOULD<\/strong> never think this of Lal Krishna Advani \u2014 the grand charioteer of Indian politics \u2014 but this politician, known for the Ram rath yatra, is not on a regimen of yoga, meditation or prayer. Ask Deepak Chopra, Advani\u2019s long-standing private secretary of over two decades, about the 81-year-old\u00a0neta\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0routine and he says, proudly, \u201cAdvaniji suffers from good health.\u2019\u2019<\/span>
\n

\"Lal<\/a>
Lal Krishna Advani<\/strong>
Age:<\/strong> 81
Profession:<\/strong> Veteran politician, former deputy prime minister
Confession:<\/strong> Has a weakness for sweets and for Ekta Kapoor\u2019s K serials, particularly Kyun Ki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi Photo:<\/strong> AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nHe should know. He is always around Advani \u2013 including at the 200-plus rallies that Advani hopped, skipped and jumped to in the May general elections as the BJP\u2019s prime minister-in-waiting. The only sign of fatigue Advani betrayed \u2014 if it can be thus put \u2014 was his throat letting him down a couple of times. \u201cThat\u2019s the only weak spot that cracks under campaign pressure,\u2019\u2019 says Chopra.<\/span>
\nAdvani, in fact, displays a stamina for work and was willing to continue being the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha for a full five-year term, and if he is now talking of donning an elder\u2019s role, it\u2019s because of what the RSS wants and not due to any signals from his body.<\/span>
\nThe one signal that he absolutely succumbs to is his love for sweets. He is more disciplined about his food intake and as Deepak put it, \u201cI have observed something unique. He has developed a habit of getting up from the dining table with hunger still within him.\u2019\u2019 This never-say-die politician is most peaceful around his family. And yes, Jinnah is not the only Pakistani legend Advani admires. He loves listening to Mallika Pukhraj and Ghulam Ali too.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

YOU WOULD never think this of Lal Krishna Advani \u2014 the grand charioteer of Indian politics \u2014 but this politician, known for the Ram rath yatra, is not on a regimen of yoga, meditation or prayer. Ask Deepak Chopra, Advani\u2019s long-standing private secretary of over two decades, about the 81-year-old\u00a0neta\u2019s\u00a0routine and he says, proudly, \u201cAdvaniji […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":65689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[56],"tags":[6930,6931,6744,1463,2683,6932,818,6933,6934],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65678"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/72"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}