Post the euphoria of the Budget Presentation during which an irresponsible opposition succumbing to the doe-eyed charms of its leader staged a walk-out creating world history by shirking its collective responsibility as a democratic brake-tool to the government of the day’s runaway, unopposed proposals, Manmohan got down from his cavalcade at the portico of his official residence with a beatific smile. The conversation that followed has been culled from the various mikes of the NSG, SSG and other assorted agencies that have their agents in place, chiefly to listen-in to the talk that occasionally occurs between a man and his wife. We reproduce excerpts, thanks to the enterprise of Mohini Kunwari’s twin, Ashwin Kunwar Jhootkar