I can’t claim to have known Manohar Parrikar well but what I knew of him I liked. He was warm, affable, candid and a very accessible politician. He may not have been the most fluent of speakers but he was among the most frank. And when he wanted, he could be delightfully indiscreet. I first met him in the early 2000s when he was chief minister of Goa and my colleague and former producer, Ashok Upadhyay, invited him to be a guest on the BBC programme, Question Time India. We were recording at Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) auditorium and I walked up to greet him as his car drove in. “I know your secret,” he said with a large smile as we shook hands. I was quite taken aback. Parrikar laughed. He knew he had me stumped. “I know about your Goan connection.” Parrikar did not reveal how he had found out that my late wife, Nisha, was Goan. But I was rather chuffed that he had made the effort. Years later, when he was defence minister, he would joke about my Goa connection. In early January 2015, I rang to ask for an interview. “It’s the son-in-law of Goa!” And he laughed heartily. “How can I refuse?”