The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Red carpet for Arjun, sun's fury for children

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 25, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Red carpet for Arjun, sun's fury for children

Staff Reporter

It was only when a TV camera zoomed in on the school children standing in the sun that the organisers noticed that something was amiss and gave them glasses of water.

TWO TIRED: The Union Minister for Human Resources Development, Arjun Singh, who seemed tired relaxing on a kerb at a function organised by minority institutions at the Jubilee Hall in Hyderabad on Sunday. (At right) Schoolchildren from St. Holy Mary' s School made to wait in the hot sun to greet Mr. Arjun Singh even as a girl helps herself to a glass of water. Photos: P.V. Sivakumar

HYDERABAD: School students waited close to three hours in the hot weather to shower him with flowers as he walked by on a red carpet already covered with blossoms.

And when the VVIP did come he was so tired he could not walk 50 feet and took a breather, sitting on a platform in a cool corridor of the Jubilee Hall.

That was the Union Minister for Human Resources Development, Arjun Singh at the felicitations organised by the Andhra Pradesh Minorities Educational Institutions Society here on Sunday.

Uncommon sight

The approximately 60-foot stretch of blacktopped approach to the main portal of the hall was decorated like never before, with the red carpet snaking its way right up to the dais inside.

It was an uncommon sight for a limousine to drive up to the portal, crushing flower petals lifeless under its radial tyres.

When a television channel's camera started zooming in on uniformed school students waiting with polythene-bagfuls of flowers, the organisers sensed something was amiss.

A steward appeared with glasses of water and the thirsty students gulped down more than one cool glass of the elixir of life.

As it was well past lunchtime for an elderly Mr. Singh, they escorted him straight to lunch at a corner hall before the function.

It was ultimately two-and-a-half hours after the scheduled time according to the invitation card, that the Union Minister occupied his chair on the dais.

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