Naveen always had a simple way of looking at life, his journalist friend Vir Sanghvi wrote, recounting the chief minister’s earlier years in a weekly pullout of the Hindustan Times a decade ago. ‘Pappu [Naveen’s pet name] didn’t seem at all concerned about worldly goods. He lived at the right address, had two servants and a car and a driver [he can’t drive], but that was about it. He never ate at fancy restaurants, and guests to his house, no matter how grand, ate whatever Manoj, the cook, made. His entire wardrobe seemed to consist of elegant but basic kurta-pyjamas.’ Sanghvi went on to write that Naveen, when asked one day in a ‘slightly drunken moment’ about his simplicity, said, ‘I have seen the most beautiful things in people’s houses. To love beauty, you don’t need to own it. You must just appreciate it.’

That being the guiding principle of Naveen’s life, . . .