On March 2, while the de­bate of a No-Con­fi­dence Mo­tion in Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar was tak­ing place in the Par­lia­ment, Food Pro­duc­tion Min­is­ter Vas­ant Bharath found the time to at­tend a farewell din­ner for Madan Shar­ma, the out­go­ing di­rec­tor of the Ma­hat­ma Gand­hi In­sti­tute for Cul­tur­al Co-op­er­a­tion. The din­ner was host­ed by In­di­an High Com­mis­sion­er Malay Mishra at his of­fi­cial res­i­dence in Fed­er­a­tion Park.

The oc­ca­sion was a bit­ter­sweet one since, on the one hand, Mishra was cel­e­brat­ing his third an­niver­sary as High Com­mis­sion­er, hav­ing pre­sent­ed his cre­den­tials to the Pres­i­dent on March 2, 2009. On the oth­er hand, the tour of du­ty for Madan Shar­ma has come to an end, and he will be re­turn­ing to In­dia. In­clud­ed among the guests were Joe Ramkissoon, chair­man, EM­B­DC; Ra­jiv Shandilya, chair­man, TDC; Dr Marie Ad­vani, Hon Con­sul for the Philip­pines; Dr Mon­i­ca Davis, Hon Con­sul for the Ba­hamas; Ali Khan, gen­er­al man­ag­er, Hilton Trinidad and Con­fer­ence Cen­tre; and Dr Sushil Dug­gal. (An­dre Alexan­der)