Matters of the heart

At a private dinner in New Delhi, as Narendra Modi's Sunday speech was being replayed in the background, a perplexed Vijay Goel, the Bharatiya Janata Party's chief ministerial candidate for New Delhi, asked a close aide why crowd seemed subdued during his speech compared to the noise and excitement that Modi's speech generated. Perhaps without thinking, the aide said, "Sir, your speech was not that great." Obviously Goel wasn't expecting to hear that. Realising his mistake, the aide quickly added, "But only till the time you were reading out a prepared speech. You were fantastic when you dropped the paper and spoke from your heart." Choosing one's words carefully is a good strategy!