A date with the President of India

From left to right: A. Sunil, Kapu, Ranjan Yumnam, Seram Rojesh

Our president is a cool dude

President A.P.J Abdul Kalam of India has a reputation of being a very down-to-earth person. That this is not a myth created by the media was confirmed when I, along with three other members of the Manipur Students' Association Delhi, met him on 8th April at the Rashtrapati Bhavan to discuss some issues related to Manipur.

As we were ushered to his chamber, the president flashed to us his trademark childlike grin - but nevertheless looking regal behind his large mahogany desk. His simplicity and friendly attitude disarmed us and whatever misgivings we had about His Excellency vanished into the presidential air.

But there is a thin line between simplicity and greatness. We knew that behind his outward appearance of innocence lies a great visionary of our times. Here was the man who propelled the Indian space programme. APJ Kalam is a president who is also a rocket scientist and the author of the Wings of Fire. A miniature model of a rocket taking off from the launch pad stood on his desk, in case any visitor forgets that fact about him. We didn’t.

As we sat on the chairs facing him, I introduced my colleagues and myself. The cursory introduction didn’t satisfy him though. He began quizzing us on more personal details like our educational qualifications, institutions where we studied, so on and so forth. Among us were two Ph.D students of JNU, a fact that whetted his interest. “What is the thesis of your research,” he asked A. Sunil, my friend from JNU. Ditto to the other guy.

We kept up the tempo of camaraderie by wishing him a Happy Sajibu Cheiraoba.

"Why don't you wish the people of Manipur through the media?" I asked. “The people of Manipur would be very happy by such a gesture.”

The president was game for it but wanted to confirm the date from his own calendar. I doubted his calendar mentioned anything that was called Cheiraoba. Realising this, we gave him a Manipuri calendar which he promptly looked up and placed it on top of the pile of documents lying on the desk to his left.

"Is cheiraoba a celebration of the harvesting season," he asked. "No sir, it is the New Year Day of the Manipuris," we told him. "The main reason why we came here is to wish you a happy Manipuri New Year".

The repartee continued but on the back of our mind we were waiting for an appropriate time to bring up the not-so-sweet issues that dogs Manipur today.

To be continued….