By IANS,
New Delhi : For Prime Minister Manmohan Singh it was flash back in time as he met his childhood friend from Pakistan, Raja Mohammed Ali, after nearly six decades here Friday evening. Both warmly hugged each other and talked of their childhood.
Singh had a very poignant and emotional reunion with his friend at a tea reception hosted at his home at 4 30 p.m. The prime minister and his wife, Gursharan Kaur, presented Ali with a shawl, a pugree (turban) and a Titan watch set.
Ali, a native of the Singh’s ancestral Gah village in Pakistan’s Punjab province, was his classmate and friend.
Ali gave his friend a photo of Gah village, a 100-year-old shawl and two embroidered salwar kameez suits for his wife.The 76-year-old, who is accompanied by his nephew Mehmud Ali, had come to the capital on his own and was staying in a Karol Bagh guest house. But Singh arranged a government guest house for them.
The prime minister was to meet Ali last week but could not due to his cataract operation.