President splashes, Prime Minister reposes

NEW DELHI: President APJ Abdul Kalam played Holi with over 100 children, some of them specially-abled, orphaned or suffering from thalassaemia, from Delhi and surrounding areas. The children performed a Holi dance and sang songs from various films, a Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesman said.

Dr Kalam gave them greeting cards which had pictures of flowers in red and blue and a poem penned by him that went, “We blossomed together, to give you fragrance on this beautiful Holi Day.”

He advised the children to do five things on Holi day, give flowers to a person recovering from illness in their neighbourhood, visit a hospital and give sweets to patients, help a visually challenged person to cross the road or listen to his or her problem, call or talk to a relative or a friend whom they have not talked to for a long time and take a decision to always smile from now onwards.

Meanwhile, a spokesman in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said Dr Singh did not play Holi today. He did not assign any reason. An official, however, said the Prime Minister had a Holi milan last evening at his residence at 7, Race Course Road when he was greeted by Ministers and top officials.