Nehru didn't trust the Chinese

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A dinner with Ho Chi Minh would be the stuff of stories for the grandchildren but being served white mice soaked in syrup is a pretty hair-raising experience to recall.

That's exactly what India's ambassador to Vietnam, Gopalaswamy Parthasarathi -- or GP as he was popularly known -- and his family were served by the North Vietnam leader in 1962
After a rollicking dinner, also attended by Prime Minister Pham Van Dong and the legendary army chief General Vo Nguyen Giap, the final dish arrived: A large jar with white objects floating in a thick syrup.

"I know what this dish is," GP said, "We call it rasagolla at home."

Chairman Ho smiled and replied: "Ambassador, I don't think so. These are specially bred white mice in sugar syrup."

Ho then picked up one by its tail and swallowed it whole.

As the jar was passed to GP, he did likewise.

"I just said Harihara, Shiva Shiva and sent the mouse down my gullet!" he would later recall.

Many such anecdotes from his long and eventful career as diplomat and bureaucrat crowd the pages of GP: 1912-1995, written by his son, Ashok Parthasarathi, who was science and technology advisor to then prime minister Indira Gandhi.

Not all diplomatic assignments comprised such exotic dinners though.

Just before he was sent to China in 1958, then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru called GP for a meeting.

"So what has the Foreign Office told you? Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai? Don't you believe it. I don't trust the Chinese one bit," the PM said.

Asking GP to be ever vigilant, Nehru advised the diplomat to send telegrams on important matters only to him.

This revelation challenges the traditional belief that the Indian government was taken completely by surprise at the Chinese aggression of 1962, resulting in a humiliating defeat in the war.

The book also casts light on what happened to the 'package deal' offered by Deng Xiaoping to India in 1982.

According to Ashok Parthasarathi's version -- and there are others -- Deng had offered that while China keep some of the territory they had acquired in 1962, India would keep all of Arunachal Pradesh.

Indira Gandhi had apparently approved the deal and had sent a letter to Deng confirming it.

However, an unauthorised miscommunication resulted in the best possible deal India and China could have had being scuttled