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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other leaders greeted President Pratibha Patil on Wednesday on her 73rd birthday.
Dr Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur met the President and presented her a bouquet of roses and wished her on her birthday. The two leaders spent nearly 10 minutes.
Later, the President went to an area in the Rashtrapati Bhavan earmarked as the 'Nakshatra' garden where she planted the sapling of a 'jamun' tree. The garden will have 27 trees named after every star in the constellation.
Born on December 19, 1934 in Nadgaon village of Jalgaon district in Maharashtra, Patil has the rare distinction of being the first woman President of the country. As many as 132 students and staff members of Vidya Bharti College of Maharashtra also visited the Rashtrapati Bhavan and greeted the President on her birthday.
The president would distribute sweaters and blankets at the home for destitute run by the Missionaries of Charity at Majnu-ka-tila. She will later travel to Rohini where she would hand over two television sets to mentally-challenged children at Asha Kiran.
Photograph: Rashtrapati Bhavan