The instant my eyes settled on the historic photograph of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru flanked by Jacqueline Kennedy (JK) and her sister at a dinner table at his residence, which appeared in Spectrum, my mind drifted to BK Nehru’s (BK) 1997 memoir, ‘Nice Guys Finish Second’. For a while, I remained on a long, pleasant reverie of sophisticated diplomacy laced with elegance, before fetching our copy of the engaging autobiography from a shelf.As we learn from BK’s memoir, the implicit purpose of JK’s nine-day visit was “to make the maximum public impression of American friendship for and appreciation of India” in the guise of a goodwill ambassador arriving aboard an Air India scheduled flight. The airline rose to the occasion, modifying the front few seats for the retinue. With matching enthusiasm, the Indian bureaucracy ensured that the “route from Palam was crowded… very large numbers came from villages… in their bullock carts to have a darshan of the ‘Maharani of America’”.The plane was dot on time but kept circling overhead, making the Prime Minister irritable and even more so when BK (the Indian Ambassador to the US at the time) informed that “Madam had not finished her toilet… that for this First Lady, beauty and elegance took primacy” over protocol, etc. Of the three days in Delhi, they were guests of the Prime Minister at the Teen Murti residence where to start with, “the young and beautiful had been invited” for a regal dinner. Believe it or not, from among all the invitees, Homi Bhabha walked up to BK suggesting that we ask the ladies “to come out dancing with us…” at ‘The Tavern’ at Imperial Hotel. Sadly for the merry duo, JK was witty enough to decline, acting the prim and proper First Lady!For all intents and purposes, JK and her sister, Lee Radziwill, were the guests of the US Ambassador, JK Galbraith, but on the insistence of the First Lady, BK too would accompany as her personal guest. And for the remaining six days of the itinerary, again upon JK’s preference, the entire retinue travelled by train; “…it was clear that Jackie was enjoying hugely the luxuries of this unusual and unhurried mode of travel”. JK remained the bundle of enthusiasm sightseeing Fatehpur Sikri, Agra, Varanasi but it was at Udaipur that the fortress — palace of the Maharana — left JK so wonderstruck that on the termination of dinner after all invitees had exited, she sat on a marble bench with BK by her side and “Jackie wrote to her husband that the White House would get lost in one of its wings… overlooking the Pichola Lake… most glorious view in the moonlight” and so on.Sonu Kapadia (Foreign Office Liaison Officer) was heard mentioning the following morning that the Indian security personnel were agog, alerting their American counterparts at breakfast that “our saheb (BK) kidnapped your memsaheb (JK) last night and you didn’t even know!”As usual for such occasions, Jaipur city and Amber fortress were the last destinations; and Lee Radziwill was a personal friend of the Maharaja and Maharani. “They had asked the two girls to stay with them, and this is what they wanted to do.” However, going by the Government of India protocol, a compromise was made — guests of the state Governor and stay at the Raj Bhavan on the first night and that of the Maharaja for the remaining two.But that fancy arrangement led to a not-so-fancy episode. The venerable Governor, a distinguished freedom fighter, courteous and polite, ate his dinner as usual at 7 pm, and two hours later, at the dinner table, flanked by JK and Radziwill, the host ate nothing but belched often and rather audibly, which “really put the lid on Mrs Kennedy’s dislike”.Perhaps the last day of the visit, back at Delhi which also happened to be the festival of Holi, stood apart for the spontaneous revelry at PM Nehru’s residence. Jackie was dressed as always in the height of fashion, Galbraith and the Prime Minister in kurta pyjama suitable for Holi and from a “little silver bowl of multi-coloured gulal… the Prime Minister ceremonially put a crimson tikka on Mrs Kennedy’s forehead”.But the epic moment of Holi frivolity belonged to BK. “I took some green powder and painted the whole length of the ridge of Mrs Kennedy’s nose.” Turning to the Prime Minister, Jackie said, “Didn’t I tell you that he (BK) was pompous? I’ll teach him a lesson”, covering BK in several shades of gulal, unmindful of his expensive lounge suit. And thus ending “a relaxed and enjoyable week in the company of the most elegant and attractive women in the US”.True to her sense of propriety as the First Lady, Mrs Kennedy retrieved just one from the huge bunch of processed photographs of what to her was the unforgettable episode; autographed that photograph and despatched it by courier “with strict instructions to hand it over to the Ambassador personally and to nobody else”. And the inscription “in Jackie Kennedy’s neat hand below the Governor’s picture: ‘The most fascinating dinner companion in all the storied East. His boiled eggs, eaten 3 hours before this picture was taken, are just having their effect.’”I have often wondered whether the US establishment had picked up straws in the wind of the PLA’s intents of Thagla Ridge aggression in the winter of 1962. And conveyed a sense of American assurance of both diplomatic and in-kind help to India in times of such crises. And whether that would have fructified meaningfully had USA not found herself faced with the Russian nuclear threat erupting from the neighbouring Cuban soil in October-November 1962.