At the PM’s swearing in at Rashtrapati Bhawan

May 27: I am again back in Jaipur today afternoon. Earlier, in the morning, while in Delhi, I greeted few of the new cabinet ministers and then took the Jaipur flight.

Tomorrow I have to be live on air with Doordarshan Jaipur from 8 am to 9 am and will have to be present at the Jaipur Doordarshan by 7:45 am.

This week, I shall be extremely busy with un-ending appointments, un-schedulded travels and lots of happenings.

Yesterday, apart from being there at the Prime Minister’s swearing in ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, I had five different meetings and two private dinner parties, one of which was in celebration for the new government by a senior politician.

The Modi ceremony was quite a gala affair. I have been to such functions at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in the past but it was really very different this time and I have never witnessed such a rare gathering before. Thanks to my friends who invited me and sent me the invite which said V1 and a green sticker for car which allowed the car right up to the entrance, close to the front row.

By the time I reached the venue it was 5:30 pm. I greeted Meira Kumar, Advani ji and others who had taken their seats on the first row. I was pleasantly surprised to find Baroness Verma and her husband who were at the end of first row on the left side of the stage.

I got a seat next to her but when an elderly woman came in looking for a seat I gave my seat and moved a row back. By then, almost all the seats were taken.

I managed to get a seat in the fifth row near Salman Khan and soon all seats were filled up. In fact, there were no seats left by the time Dharmendra, Hema Malini and Poonam Dhillon arrived.

It was nice of Salman who offered his seat to Dharmendra and I offered mine to Hema Malini. I and Salman were both looking for seats.  Officials noticed the whole thing and organised for a seat for Salman and his father in the middle block on second row.

I was given a seat on the left block in second row just behind Baroness Varma.

It was good chatting up with her. In the same block, there were many industrialists including Mukesh Ambani and family, Gautam Adani, Kumar Mangalam Birla and his wife and another industrialist from Ahmedabad, Sudhir Mehta, with whom I chatted up for a while.

After the swearing in ceremony I greeted few of the ministers who had taken oath. I also met Karan Paul at the VIP tea area post ceremony. My next two days would keep me very busy which includes a recording schedule with the E-TV lined up the day after.

ess bee