New Delhi: It will be another birthday abroad
for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday when he turns 79,
the fourth time in the past eight years after he assumed
office.
A workaholic who shies away from any celebrations, Singh
celebrates his birthday on September 26 as his parents had
given it as his date of birth to get him admitted in a school
in a village now in Pakistan during the pre-partition days.
However, his actual date of birth remains a mystery.
Singh, who is now abroad on a six-day visit to the United
States, will be transit from New York to India via Frankfurt
during his birthday.
On previous such occasions, his birthday was celebrated on
Air India One.
In his first year as Prime Minister in 2004, he celebrated
his birthday mid-air on way to Geneva from New York on Air
India's Boeing 747-400.
Singh then did not cut the two-and-a-half kg fruit cake
specially made for the occasion but joined everyone in having
a slice of it.
He had then told accompanying reporters "I really don't
know my birthday. This is the date mentioned in my school
records."
Once again, four years later, he celebrated his birthday
in Washington and the next year he turned another leaf in his
life on air while returning from G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh in
the US and heading to Geneva.
Singh was born to Sardar Gurmukh Singh and Amrit Kaur in
1932 in Gah of Punjab, which is now in Chakwal District of
Pakistan.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, September 25, 2011, 18:32