The Hindu : New Delhi News : Renewing some old bonds

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 07, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Renewing some old bonds

It was a trip down memory lane for the French Prime Minister's wife Marie Laure de Villepin when she went visiting her favourite bit of India -- Vasant Vihar. In Delhi for a few days, she managed to squeeze some time out for nostalgia in between her busy cultural engagements to go back "home".

An old "Vasant Vihari", she had spent three years in the colony when her husband was posted in New Delhi back in 1989. A link between India and France that she certainly has not forgotten, she might be living in one of the most magical cities in the world, but she seems to miss the "desi" surroundings here.

"I met the Prime Minister's wife at the opera and she told me that she had spent some a few years in the colony and that she really fond memories of the place. I told that it would be an honour for us to have her if she wanted to come visiting," said the President of the Vasant Vihar RWA,, Romi Chopra. Going back to the colony to renew old bonds and find new "friends", she spent some time talking to members of the RWA earlier this week.

"She seems to have had a very good time here. She was very friendly. We got her some garlands in jasmine, a little bit of Indian hospitality and she was quite fond of the colony," remarked managing committee member Anusuya Bharadwaj.

With plenty of associations with the colony from having her daughter there to her baptism in St. Dominic's Church in the corner of Vasant Vihar, India and its people have left a permanent impression on her mind.

"She remembers shopping in `C' Block Market and told me that some of her happiest times were here. She invited us to Paris and said that if she can make us as happy as she was in Vasant Vihar, she would be really happy," said Mr. Chopra. — Mandira Nayar

— Mandira Nayar

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