Often, when she came to Delhi, she sought me out.

Our last longish conversation was at TV anchor and her close friend Karan Thapar’s home a couple of years ago. Some of the prominent editors Karan had invited did not quite know her rather feudal, personal style. Outlook editor-in-chief Vinod Mehta happened to be sitting to her left and as the conversation got more animated, he, as his friends and TV audiences well know, leaned forward to make his point, often touching her by now ample arm in a wonderfully warm gesture of informality. Benazir stopped me for a five-minute tattle as we were all leaving. She talked about this and that, and then said: “I did not know your Delhi journalists get so familiar with leaders. Tell me how would Sonia Gandhi handle that?”