Benazir Bhutto used to say to me, “Shyam, I am not going to be interviewed by you. I always tell you more than I should.” And she did. Over the years her indiscretions included telling me of how General Musharraf had drawn up plans for the conquest of Srinagar.

Benazir was always loyal to her friends, open minded and secular. We were friendly for more than 30 years. She fascinated me from the first day I met her as a fellow student at Oxford. She was campaigning for the university to award her father an honorary degree and at that time I led the student opposition disgusted by what we saw as Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s ignoble role in persecuting Sheikh Mujib and his followers.

As associations go, ours started off on the wrong foot with a shouting match outside Wadham College, Oxford. The issue was this honorary degree that she was so determined to secure for her father. For the best part of six months after that exchange there was silence and mutual hostility. Then out of the blue came an invitation to a drinks party hosted jointly by Benazir and Peter Galbraith, another fellow student and the son of the former US ambassador to India, John Kenneth Galbraith.

“So you have stopped speaking to me?” Benazir inquired when I showed up for the reception to help launch her career in Oxford student politics. “Pinky” (her pet name), I replied in Urdu. “Who am I to ignore a Shahzadi?” We remained on friendly terms from then onwards.

... contd.