Singh’s three grandsons have agreed to watch the oath-taking on TV since only one of them is above 15 years, the age bar for invitees. Besides, as Singh’s eldest daughter Upinder, puts it: ‘‘This is a solemn occasion, not a baraat.’’ Singh’s wife Gursharan told The Indian Express that she had been trying to find time to take her husband to the Bangla Sahib Gurdwara, but they have hardly had time to speak to each other these past three days. So she visited the shrine on her own yesterday and distributed prasad.
Asked how the family was preparing for the swearing-in, she said, ‘‘In our family, we don’t give much importance to clothes. Tell me, should I wear a saree or a salwar kameez?’’
Her husband, she said, had a new sherwani, gifted to him by some friends in Aligarh where he attended a convocation recently. But the Prime Minister-designate may not be wearing the sherwani to Ashoka Hall: ‘‘He will end up wearing his trademark white churidar kurta, maybe a jacket to go with it.’’
Family members said they had arrived at a formula on who should attend the swearing-in, despite the rush for requests.
Those present will include Singh’s brother from Amritsar, Surjeet Singh, Gursharan’s brother, Jaspal Singh. Singh’s three daughters and two sons-in-law will also be in the gathering of around 400 invitees.
Youngest daughter Amrit, who is an attorney in New York, flew in last night for father’s big day.
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Upinder says despite the rush of visitors, things had not really changed for them at 19, Safdarjung Road.
It was still the dal-roti-sabzi routine and each of them had taken up a different responsibility.
While she was attending to phone calls, her mother was receiving the stream of visitors. ‘‘None of us has had time to think of say, what we will wear to Rashtrapati Bhavan. But you certainly will not see us in designer clothes.’’
She said what really touched her today was a clip aired on a TV channel which showed people in Gah, her father’s village in Pakistan, celebrating his appointment as Prime Minister.
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‘‘I am planning to get a copy of the tape and show it to my father when he has the time. I know he will be happy with this emotional touch from across the border.’’
It is her mother then who sums up the mood of the household: ‘‘It’s all very overwhelming. It’s fantastic. Sonia Gandhi has done something which no one expected.’’
