At home with the President

The Saudi king may offer curiousity value, but President Kalam remains the real star at the event.

His endearing humility never ceases to surprise even scribes through whose veins cynicism surges.

This Republic Day, the President invites a group of blind students and police constables from all over the country to the At Home event and personally ensures that they are all well looked after.

There are some in the crowd who appeal to his humanity and seek his intervention to solve a personal problem. It is not easy to offer credible hope -- after all, he must be besieged with countless petitions for help every day -- and yet when President Kalam says he will 'see what he can' do, his assurance has that ring of authenticity which almost invariably brings a smile of relief to the petitioner's face.

I've said it before, but I will repeat it again -- The constellations currently above India must be in unique conjunction. We have fine men as President and Prime Minister; men of unusual integrity and comparable goodness. India must seize this moment; it may not return again.

Also See: Republic Day Special: 'We are soldiers'
All set for R-Day
The King in India

King Abdullah, wikipedia informs us, is also his country's prime minister, commander of the Saudi National Guard, chairman of the Supreme Economic Council, vice-president of the High Council for Petroleum and Minerals, president of the King Abdulaziz Centre for National Dialogue, deputy chairman of the Council of Civil Service and and a member of the Military Service Council. Of course, no title -- not even king -- matches his spiritual title, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. Traditionally, the Saudi monarch takes responsibility for the mosques at Mecca and Medina. It is a brief that brings with it great influence in the Muslim world, and in recent times, the unfortunate anger of Osama bin Laden and his International Islamic Front who allege that the Saudi royal family is unfit for this most important Islamic role.

Photograph: Raveendran/AFP/Getty Images