Candy and floss for a VIP patient

OCT 14: The greeting card and gifts industry must be in the midst of a boom. Breach Candy is faced with a deluge of get-well gifts, letter...

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OCT 14: The greeting card and gifts industry must be in the midst of a boom. Breach Candy is faced with a deluge of get-well gifts, letters and bouquets, all addressed to the VIP patient. From a single rose to bouquets as tall as three feet, admirers have used a variety of ways to express their affection for the Prime Minister and to wish him a speedy recovery.

The team of BJP activists, who attend to the constant stream of VIP visitors asking after Vajpayee’s health, are on their feet from seven in the morning onwards. Actor Vinod Khanna and his wife are regular visitors while Dev Anand makes it a point to call everday.

About 300 bouquets are sent everyday by VIPs all over the city to convey their best wishes to the Prime Minister. Though it is not possible to send all the bouquets to his room everyday, an updated list is sent up to him at 10 am sharp everyday. One bouquet has arrived all the way from Bangladesh sent by Shaikh Hasina. Since the number of bouquets arriving are so large, many are diverted to general wards of government hospitals in the city.

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Some of the other gift items sent include a small planner which came all the way from China, a khadi jacket, books, framed quotations and letters.

About four thousand letters are sent everday, many from young children who have drawn sketches of the PM and have wished him a speedy recovery. In one such letter, a school-going girl Tanvi Nimish Sheth has said, `Dear Vajpayee dadaji, this is to wish you a very speedy recovery”..we are all happy to know that the operation was successful..how are you feeling now..get well soon..love and good wishes..”.

The letters are sorted by volunteers and some displayed on the notice board. There have been messages on the website ataljigetwellsoon@yahoo.com too from different parts of the world. The staff has decided to respond to each one of these messages.

The Nehru jacket sent to Vajpayee is an exact replica of one worn by him. It has been sent by the Bramha Kumari Samaj. “When Mangal Prabhat Lodha, who heads this entire management asked the Samaj representative, how did they know his size they said they guessed it from the photographs,” says BJP’s Anil Singh.

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About 450 greeting cards are sent everyday. ETI-Kids High School even held a Get Well Soon greeting cards competition of which best 36 were selected and sent on behalf of the school. About 250 calls are received at the hospital everyday for enquiries about the current state of Mr Vajpayee’s health. One Mr Krishnakant Parekh, about 70 years old, rings up three times everyday just to convey his good wishes to his favourite leader. He is not the only one. There is a young lad who studies in the tenth standard in Vapi called Mitesh Shah, who too rings up everyday and insists that the authorities allow him to speak to the Prime Minister.

Mrs Dey, who is the executive co-ordinator of the hospital says, “There are constant calls comming to wish the prime minister everyday. In fact while the entire BMC water lafda was going on, more than 25 calls were made by people who wanted to speak directly with Mr Vajpayee to plead with him to resolve the problem. In fact, one of them said we are unresponsive because we have water here at the hospital. Now I have instructed the operator to hold such calls. But otherwise there are calls from all over India as well as abroad.”

List of gifts received
A khadi jacket

4 Cassettes of Ghazals

2 compact disc

300 cards per day

350 to 400 letters per day

A diary sent from China

Prasad from Tirupathi and Siddhivinayak

A lifesize cutout of the PM

Silk from the South

A shawl from Swami Narayan Mahalaxmi Mandir