Beating the deadline

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was the Chief Guest at Assocham's 92nd Annual Session at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi earlier this month. Standard protocol requires invitees and journalists to be seated by 9.30 a m for the inaugural address at 10 a m. But heavy rains and the inevitable traffic jams meant many people could not make it on time and were denied entry. One celebrity editor with a leading daily, however, displayed the resourceful courage that informs his newspaper's front page and asked the security guards to let him in since he had to "introduce the PM on the stage". Of course, this was a trick to gain the entry but the guards didn't want to take any chances and let him in.