By Liz Mathew, IANS,
Sao Paulo : Although the Indian community in Sao Paulo, the commercial capital of Brazil, is not very large, an unprecedented crowd had gathered to welcome President Pratibha Patil and be photographed with her when she arrived here Sunday on the first leg of her three-nation Latin American tour.
Many were excited to meet the first woman president of India. After Patil’s short speech, there was a long queue of people wanting to have their photographs taken with her. Patil, wearing a silk sari, happily obliged.
“I wanted to see the first woman president of India. We felt very proud that she chose our place as her first destination,” said Urmi, an Indian homemaker.
Hardeep Singh Puri, India´s ambassador to Brazil who hosted the reception at the Hotel Hilton in honour of the president, said that the crowd – about 500 people – was unprecedented.
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Patil gets lessons from pilots
Unlike her predecessor A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Pratibha Patil is no technophile. But the 74-year-old president is still curious to learn new things.
During her maiden foreign trip on a special Air India aircraft, Patil showed unusual keenness to go to the cockpit to inquire about technical details of flying.
Like a curious student, she asked the pilots about the equipments and functioning of the machines in the cockpit. She was also eager to know about the direction of the wind and the route the aircraft was taking to Brazil from Lisbon, where she had a halt during her long journey.
The pilots were more than happy to explain everything in detail to the constitutional head of the country.