School children line the road as the mortal remains of former President APJ Abdul Kalam is carried in an open-top vehicle from Palam to his residence, in New Delhi today. (PTI photo)
For hours they stood in the sun, drenched by the humidity of this monsoon season.
All they wanted was a final glimpse of the man they knew as
the People's President.
And so they waited. Hour upon hour.
A short distance away, outside 10 Rajaji Marg, the residence of APJ Abdul Kalam, the special people arrived. VVIPs and VIPs.
There was the President, the Vice President, the Prime Minister, the BJP President Amit Shah, the Congress President Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul, Sitaram Yechury and even the likes of Shahnaz Husain, the beautician.
Today, on Rajaji Marg, there were clearly some people who were more special than the others. Some who believed that they deserved an unhindered last glimpse of the former President who lay in state in the home that he has known for the last seven years.
Protocol, said Defence Ministry officials. Security, said the security officials. All true, no doubt. But all part of the VIP culture that dominates our mind space, the same VIP culture that would never do things the other way around - allow ordinary citizens the first opportunity to pay their final respects for the late President, a man our politicians proclaim as a man of the masses.
The clock kept ticking. The public were to be allowed inside at 3 pm. Instead, they were allowed in an hour later. Defence Ministry officials who structured the events today would argue that a one hour delay was a small inconvenience. After all, the people's representatives had earned the right to enter first.
When they left, a torrent of humanity descended upon the home of Dr Kalam. There were students with roses, doctors, peons from the nearby government offices and there were officers and men of the armed forces for whom Dr Kalam was once a Supreme Commander.
The police struggled for a few minutes to maintain order, to keep the masses in check. But sure enough, and in keeping with the solemnity of the occasion, queues formed, people stopped jostling and they waited, quietly for a chance to say a final farewell.
There weren't overwhelming crowds outside 10 Rajaji Marg. The numbers would have been less than a thousand people - and by 7:30 pm, most had paid their last respects and left after having waited an hour in the lines outside the late President's residence.
The politicians, on the other hand, didn't need to wait. They arrived in their motorcades. Entered and exited - all done in ten minutes flat.