In the capital recently for the internal security conclave, Patnaik could not help talking about his love for pakhal, rice cooked and soaked in water, which is very popular in Orissa. He urged fellow scribes from the state not to forget their 'Oriya culture' while staying in the capital and promised to serve them up the traditional Oriya dish next time around.

After a rather heated discussion on the rising Maoist problem in his state, many realised why Patnaik was referring to pakhal. It is normally eaten on hot summer days - and helps avoid heat strokes!

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Angry Mamata avoiding cabinet meetings?

It seems deliberations on the proposed land acquisition bill by the cabinet last month have left Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee so angry that she has not attended a single cabinet meeting since then.

Officials say she had more pressing matters to attend to in her home state of West Bengal. Some railway officials pass off her absence by saying there were no proposals concerning her ministry. But her party colleagues maintain she did not take too kindly to the comments made by some ministers, who have failed to understand how steadfast she is in ensuring that farmers are not forcibly displaced from their land.

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Abdullah's newfound energy

Has National Conference patron Farooq Abdullah finally come to terms with his new and renewable energy portfolio, which he jokingly refers to as the 'gobar gas' ministry?

Since he took over, insiders say, Abdullah has kept a low profile, eschewed public functions and really did not have his heart in the running of the ministry. Last week he however took time off from shuttling between Srinagar and Delhi and visited Rajasthan for a related function.

Abdullah was there as chief guest on the occasion of the Rajiv Gandhi Akshay Urja Divas (Energy Day) and he promised he would spell out an action plan for power to all villages. Has there been a change of heart? Abdullah now firmly believes that non-conventional energy will be the new force that will save the world from global warming.

Incidentally, Rajasthan is dear to him because his daughter Sarah's in-laws come from the state. She is married to Abdullah's fellow union minister Sachin Pilot.

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From zero in BJP to hero in Pakistan

Jaswant Singh may have been expelled from the primary membership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for writing a book on Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, but he has become an instant hero in Pakistan.

Singh was applauded by the Pakistani media for the book and even got help from his friends in Pakistan to author the book 'Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence' in which he praised Jinnah. Prominent among his friends who helped him out were Pakistani High Commissioner Shahid Malik and head of Dawn newspaper Hamid Haroon.

Reliable sources maintain that both Malik and Haroon provided substantial material to help Singh author the book.

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Tailpiece: Most Congress MPs got an SMS soon after BJP leader Jaswant Singh's sudden exit from the party. One smart MP quipped: 'Jinnah waha, marna yaha'.