By Liz Mathew and Sri Krishna, IANSÂ
New Delhi : With barely two weeks to go before he leaves the presidential palace, President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has planned a special farewell party for the Rashtrapati Bhavan staff – the first such gesture from a president. `
Kalam has always surprised his personal staff in the Rashtrapati Bhavan with his unassuming nature. For most of his around 900 personal staff in the` presidential palace, he was the first president who did not have any problems in mingling with them and taking personal interest in their lives.
Now, with just a few days before he moves to his new villa-like house in 10, Rajaji Marg, in Lutyen's Bungalow Zone, his staff is preparing to bid him a fond goodbye.
"The president is organising a tea party for his staff and there will be a special get together with media persons too," a presidential aide told IANS.
The aide, who by rules cannot be identified, said this was an initiative taken by Kalam and "there is no such custom.
"The president is inviting his entire staff for a special farewell party and everyone from the lowest to the highest will be attending it," the aide said.
According to his aides, the president was not unhappy about leaving the presidential palace premises, but "might feel bad" about leaving his favourite pets living in the grounds surrounding the 350-roomed palace.
The animals he adopted include a two-year-old fawn, named Tippu, which was treated by the Rashtrapati Bhavan veterinary doctors to correct a defect in its foot. Tippu was from the deer enclosure in the presidential estate and had been rejected by its mother.
The traditional 'At Home' farewell party will be held on July 22 and the farewell dinner with the prime minister and his council of ministers will be held June 24, on the eve of the new president's swearing-in.
"Although he had a hectic time in Rashtrapati Bhavan, he has not lost his interest in his favourite subjects of space science and nuclear technology. He is still keen to read and discuss about them," the aide said.
"He is also meeting children, he loves and enjoys talking to them about his favourite subjects and his vision in life. He wants to continue that in his new residence too," another personal aide said, adding that the president had met 1.5 million children during his five years in office.
He has donated his honours and awards, including the Bharat Ratna, and some of his personal belongings, to a museum built at BrahMos office complex in Delhi Cantonment, which will be open for schoolchildren at weekends.
Kalam, who was one of the most well travelled presidents inside the country but avoided foreign travel as far as he could, does not have any official programmes outside the national capital now. He had embarked on his last and 161st domestic tour as president to Hyderabad in the last week of June.
Although he will be busy completing his book – "Everybody is Born to Blossom" – the president is likely to take special interest in the space training centre programme, planned by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in Thiruvananthapuram.
Informed sources said the technocrat president may unofficially advise ISRO's moon mission – Chandrayan-I – proposed for 2008.