Welcome to No 2G, No Chidambaram-Pranab Day
Reporters travelling back to India with the prime minister on Air India One for once sheathed their inquisitive swords and decided to give Dr Singh a break on his 79th birthday.
Much to the shy prime minister's embarrassment, the media corps presented Dr Singh a birthday card, and sang Happy Birthday raucously and mostly out of tune, as he cut a large chocolate cake.
Dr Singh waved away one reporter's request that his wife Gursharan Kaur be present, but the event -- the third in four years that the prime minister has celebrated his birthday in the air -- was witnessed by a posse of prime ministerial aides.
Dr Singh cut another cake inside his cabin, along with his wife, daughter Professor Upinder Singh, grandson and officials.
Tomorrow, the birthday bon homie will recede as reporters belligerently quiz Dr Singh about his government which lives under a state-of-seige today.
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