London: Britain's iconic St James's Palace in the heart of London reverberated to the beats of a Kishore Kumar classic during a special reception hosted today by Prince Charles and wife Camilla. The royal couple clapped and foot-tapped to "O Mere Dil Ke Chain" from the 1970s film "Kati Patang", sung by popular British Indian singer Navin Kundra. Kundra followed it up with two of his chart-topping hits - "Tere Liye" and "Mehbooba" and even got the future King of England to address Camilla as his 'mehbooba' (loved one).
"This is a word you can use for her all the time," Kundra said at the event, hosted this afternoon for members of Britain's Indian and Sri Lankan communities to mark the royal couple's upcoming tour of South Asia next month. "This is a major milestone in my career and a huge honour to be performing in this monumental palace. I wanted to give their royal highnesses a flavour of India to put them in the mood for their tour," he said. Prince Charles and Camilla will be in India during November 6-14, their third and most extensive visit yet to the country as a couple.
They will then travel to Sri Lanka for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo, where the heir to Britain's throne is representing his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. "We look forward to welcoming him in India, a place he said is always a pleasure to visit," said Virander Paul, India's acting High Commissioner to the UK, who joined his Sri Lankan counterpart at the palace to extend a ceremonial welcome to the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall.
The guests at the event included prominent British Asians from the fields of business, politics, entertainment, charity and media. Indian-origin business tycoons like S P Hinduja and Tom Singh were joined by the likes of filmmaker Gurinder Chadha and actors Nina Wadia and Preeya Kalidas. "While we know you are seasoned travellers, I would remind you to stick to bottled water and haggle on price while shopping in India," joked British Indian comic actor Sanjeev Bhaskar in his address. The prince and the duchess are scheduled to travel to Dehradun, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Kochi, where they will meet India's top political, business and cultural leaders.
