Puttaparthi (Andhra Pradesh) : The week -long celebrations of Sri Sathya Sai Baba?s 85th Birthday- ?Festival of Divine Love?- which began on November 15, finally culminated on Tuesday evening as eminent personalities from different walks of life were present to wish and seek the godman?s blessing here.
The entire township of Puttaparthi was decked up to celebrate Sathya Sai?s birthday.
The authorities at Puttaparthi ashram had made arrangements to broadcast Sathya Sai?s birthday celebrations via satellite in 16 states in India and 62 countries worldwide.
Famous musicians Hariharan, Shankar Mahadevan and Suresh Wadekar entertained all gathered on this occasion.
Amongst those present were S.M. Krishna – External Affairs Minister, Virbhadra Singh – the Central Cabinet Minister of Steel, Vilasrao Deshmukh – Central Cabinet Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Sushil Kumar Shinde – Central Cabinet Minister of Power, as well as Governor of Andhra Pradesh-ESL Narasimham, Governor of Punjab- Shivraj Patil, Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu- M.K. Stalin, former Chief Minister of Maharashtra- Ashok Chavan.
J. Geeta Reddy-Minister of Information and PR, Tourism, Government of Andhra Pradesh, mayor of Chennai City-M.A. Subramaniam, Ratan Tata-Chairman, Tata Group of Industries and N. Chandrasekhar- CEO of Tata Consultancy Services also graced the occasion.
All India President of Sri Sathya Sai Organisations, V.Srinivasan, announced new initiatives that included, daily free food of high nutritious value to the villages currently being run by the Mobile Hospital in and around Puttaparthi and the Sri Sathya Sai Vidya Vahini project, which aims to bring quality education to the remotest villages of India utilizing the latest technology and resources.
The celebrations concluded in the evening with ?Prema Pravaham?-a musical programme by students of Sathya Sai, along with laser show and fireworks.