Indian techie greets President with record gift story

“When I used to see the grandeur of Rashtrapati Bhavan during my childhood, I always wondered whether I will be able to meet any of its occupants. I never knew that it will come true thousands of miles away,” said 29-year-old Rebecca, who is doing a degree course in Event Management at Auckland University of Technology.

The President was here on May 2 for a function organised by the University where he addressed the students during the course of his state visit to New Zealand. Rebecca, who holds a Guinness world record for making the largest tealight candle, presented her art work to the President in which she had interspersed traditional design and colour, representing the Indian National bird, animal and flower, with a dash of a silver fern which is widely representative of New Zealand. 

“The design itself comes together with traditional mangomotifs that tell a story of the two nations and the environment,” she said. “Beautiful”, was the immediate reaction of the President on receiving the art work. And as the President was ready to leave, the Vice Chancellor took Rebecca’s phone for clicking her picture with the President to which Mukherjee joked, “this is the new age where the Vice Chancellor takes a picture of the student.”