New Delhi, Aug. 18 -- Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi has always surprised me. Every time I go to Holy Family Hospital in Okhla, where my heart is periodically serviced, I remember him because it was there that he was born. I never believed the BJP's branding of him as Pappu, because I know that party has many a Pappu, even at the top. I know that the ruling party deliberately characterised him just the way Chandu in the Kerala folklore, Vadakkan Pattukal, was portrayed - jealous and treacherous.

It required eminent writer MT Vasudevan Nair to redeem Chandu as the legendary warrior in one of his films. In much the same way, he transformed the character of Bheema in his celebrated book 'Randamoozham,' where Bheema emerges as a consi...