At Monday's press conference at the East Room in the White House -- again a room with an old style, fresco-lined ceiling -- I ignored Dr Singh.

Through the length of the 'joint press availability,' as the interaction with the media was called, I just focused on the Leader of the Free World.

I don't think there is one leader in the world with such a mobile face.

George W Bush doesn't seem to know what to do with his face when someone else is talking.

He will smirk (not insultingly, I should add; it is simply the man's style); he will sniff several times in succession (almost soundlessly), his eyes will travel from one end to the other, then his neck will turn abruptly as if electricity has been passed through it.

A Chaplinesque moment occurred some minutes into the press conference when a fly, which had been hovering over our heads, suddenly decided it preferred the President instead.

As the fly performed a couple of sorties around the presidential skull, Bush's eyes rotated a full 360 degrees as it tried to keep track of the aerial menace.

Only the importance of the occasion kept me from laughing out aloud.

That apart, I must add there was both awe and affection in the way he looked at Dr Singh. And in that gaze, rather than in all the reams of analysis, may lie the real secret of the transformed Indo-US relationship.

Also Read: Images: Dr Singh in Washington

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