New Delhi: President A P J Abdul Kalam on Tuesday strode across the stage to hug blind music composer Kedarnath Mukherjee after he and his young choir rendered his poem into song at the concluding ceremony of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas on Tuesday.
As the Hindi rendering of the song Ignited Minds ended and the half a dozen schoolchildren from the Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, Jorbagh were being escorted backstage, the president suddenly rose from his seat, waved off his surprised ADC and went to the singer, shook his hands and then embraced him, much to the latter's surprise.
Mukherjee clasped the president's hands and bowed his head amidst thunderous applause.
That was not the only time Kalam endeared himself to the over 1,100-strong audience.
In the course of conferring the annual Pravasi Bharatiya Samman awards to 15 overseas Indians, when one of the recipients was posing for the photographs without noticing that the president was trying to shake his hands, the president promptly lifted the recipient's hand, gave a warm handshake, patted his arm, and then flashed a brilliant smile to the delight of the audience.
Later, in his valedictory speech, as Kalam shared his vision of a developed India by the year 2020, the audience repeatedly broke into applause and gave him a standing ovation at the end of the speech.
Comments
0 comment