Mumbai school children prepare to welcome Obama

Students from Holy Name School in south Mumbai's Colaba, which has been chosen to celebrate Diwali with US President Barack Obama are gearing up to welcome the American President during his visit to the country.

"We were surprised and happy to know that our school has been chosen for the Diwali celebrations with the American President Obama," Principal of the school Father Michael Pinto told PTI.

The children of the school are very excited and they feel honoured about Obama's visit to the school, Pinto said. In fact, a group of students have started preparing cultural programmes, projects to impress the President, he added. "The President would come to school on Sunday morning and we would give him few presentations on environment. Then a small cultural programme which includes a Diwali dance and a traditional Koli dance would be performed."

A small interaction session would be conducted between the students and Obama," Pinto said.

When asked if the school was chosen because its a Convent institute, the Principal denied saying "we have 60 per cent Hindu students, 35 per cent Muslims and only five per cent Christians. But it may that we have a very good record in academics as well as cultural activities," he said.

The event is not going to be very smooth affair with the schools, as the security would be very tight. The police, White House officials and security agencies have been regularly visiting school instructing measures to be taken.

Only limited number of students would get chance to attend the function, the Principal added.