Hearty laughter for Bush after day-long engagements

New Delhi, Mar 2 (UNI) At the end of day-long back-to-back hectic engagements, US President George W Bush was all laughter at the picturesque lawns of Rashtrapati Bhavan where his Indian counterpart A P J Abdul Kalam hosted a banquet for him and his wife, Laura.

A visibly cheerful Bush, standing hand-in-hand with his wife, made it a point to exchange some words with almost every Indian dignitary introduced to him on the lawns and frequently broke into loud laughter.

The list of such dignitaries that started with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur was obviously very long as the ceremony, held between the delegation level talks between the two Presidents and the banquet, lasted about half-an-hour.

Ms Laura, wearing a full-length gown in cream shiffon, also looked cheerful and shook hands with all the dignitaries who included Dr Singh's cabinet colleagues, Chief Justice of India Y K Sabharwal, the three chiefs of staff, CII President Y K Deweshwar and several other industrials and eminent journalists, including Outlook Editor Vinod Mehta and Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta.

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