Indian sports minister Sunil Dutt who died Wednesday - the day on which he assumed office last year - was to have held a unique meeting Thursday with the country's top sportspersons.

Dutt, who would have turned 76 on June 6, was to meet the athletes at Vigyan Bhavan to listen to their grievances and also to give financial help to the deserving.

Only minutes before the news of his death was flashed across the television screens, IANS received a call from Dutt's office reminding it about Thursday's event.

A Congress member of the Lok Sabha, Dutt was unlike a politician in every sense of the term. He acted and behaved like a true sportsman wherever he went, mingling with athletes and egging them on to work for higher goals.

The film actor-turned-politician was easily accessible to athletes and officials. He wanted to do so much for Indian sports, though bureaucratic hassles often tied him down.

Dutt was in a hurry to help sportspersons and to become a catalyst for them to gain worldwide recognition. This he made clear while distributing special awards to athletes at Vigyan Bhavan in March.

He cajoled the cream of India's sports stars gathered there to reach the top and buttressed his point by reciting a famous couplet by well-known Urdu poet Allama Iqbal.

"Sitaron se aage jahan aur bhi hain, abhi ishaq ke imtihaan aur bhi hain (there is a world beyond the stars, there are more tests ahead for the passion of love)," he said to thunderous applause.

Dutt was amazingly frank and admitted that he was short on patience when it came to helping athletes and that he wanted to overcome bureaucratic impediments.

"I am always in a hurry to get the work done. But our sports secretary (Meenaxi Anand Chaudhry) keeps telling me to have patience, because sometimes you spoil the work when doing it in a hurry," he remarked with a smile that day.

That smile will now linger forever - at least in the minds of those who were present at Vigyan Bhavan March 2.