Sunday, September 23, 2001		VIP Toon Tales

THE former President of the USA, Bill Clinton, was in Delhi in March, 2000. I made his sketch during his arrival. The effort to get him to autograph it started right from the time I approached the Ministry of External Affairs to let me meet Clinton "at least for a second". But the White House authorities were wary, thinking that anything drawn by a cartoonist would lampoon the President. Finally, I got an opportunity at the Hyderabad House, where Clinton held a joint press conference along with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. As the conference was coming to an end, I got up and said, "Mr President, I have a sketch of yours which I would like to present to you". Clinton smiled and said,"I will come to you", but he was whisked away by the security guards in the other direction. At this stage, US Assistant Secretary of State, Karl Inderfurth, intervened, collected the drawings and promised to send them back to me with Clinton’s signature. A few days later, I found a huge envelope with the White House seal in my mail. And when I opened it, to my joy I found the sketch signed by Clinton in bold ink. Well, I remain indebted to Karl Inderfurth for his effort.