And Sonia's birthday brought out the poet in Congress workers as they sang couplets in her honour. On Akbar Road, the side entrance to her 10 Janpath House, traffic came to a halt with thousands of people lining up to wish her a happy birthday. But the instructions to party workers organising the affair were clear. Line up the Sikhs and the Muslims first. Surrounded by Special Protection Group (SPG) personnel, Sonia rushed straight to where the Sikh religious leaders were lined up. As they began the paath, she covered her head with her shawl, folded her hands and shut her eyes as cameras clicked away.

Then they presented her with a saropa (ceremonial sword), which she refused to wield despite their requests. The Muslim leaders were next. They blessed her and then she moved on. Perhaps the birthday was a pretext because, immediately after greeting her, almost all the people handed her petitions for jobs, money, free medical treatment, contracts, party posts, election tickets et al.

Sonia simply smiled, thanked them and moved on. People clamoured to be photographed with her, offering photographers even Rs 500 a print. ``Madam, please, one photo with me,'' shouted a young man in a suit. Sonia paused and smiled at the cameras. The young man tried to put an arm around her shoulder. The SPG men yanked his hand away. Madam moved on. Suddenly, she stopped, seeing a man weeping. He fell at her feet, saying something. ``What does he want?'' she asked an aide, accompanying her with his hands crammed with applications, who leaned forward to listen.

``He wants a job and money,'' was the reply. But by then Sonia had swept on, smiling, accepting flowers and garlands. An old man waved a sheaf of stamp papers at her. ``Madam, you are my mother. Indira Gandhi was my mother. I want to donate my entire life's savings to the national museum. I have some very old coins,'' he said in Hindi, holding out coins.

``What does he say?'' she asked her aide. ``Madam, he has some very old coins and wants to deposit it in the museum for the next generation,'' the aide replied. ``Why can't it be done? Take his application and see what we can do,'' said Sonia, as she smiled at the old man. Further ahead, party activists, armed with colourful conical birthday caps, whistles and horns, were creating a racket as they tootled and bellowed Happy Birthday to You at the tops of their voices.

``Madam, please wear the cap. Please, madam,'' said one. She refused and moved to where people from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa waited with roses and marigolds. She accepted the flowers, touched the sweets and moved on. Some schoolchildren, who had sat on the wet grass since 8.30 a.m., finally got to spend a few seconds with her around 11.15 a.m.

Then, she waved to the crowd and went inside the house where, in the darbar-e-khas, several VIPs awaited her.

But it was only the first darbar-e-aam that was over. There were another several hundred people queuing. The second durbar would start in an hour.