Schools vie with each other to send their kids to be part of the function. Only a lucky few get the official nod.

But for the kids it is not fun all the way. They have to juggle with their studies and the rehearsals. But in the end they get some of most the vantage spots to see the prime minister deliver the speech.

Sitting in neat lines, children face the ramparts of the Red Fort from which Atal Bihari Vajpayee will deliver his address to the nation on August 15.

Photograph: Prakash Singh/AFP/Getty Images

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