But, from time to time, his lines prove amazingly appropriate to the occasion. And there were many who saw the hand of Heaven on three Independence Days. About 600 sprigs of royalty found that they had been uprooted overnight. The greatest of them all, George VI, was reduced from a 'King-emperor' to a mere 'King'. As Jawaharlal Nehru unfurled the tricolour for the first time near India Gate, a rainbow sprang up.
Eyewitnesses insist it was a band of just three colours, in an eerie reflection of the flag.
Twenty-eight years later, in 1975, Heaven wasn't smiling. Nehru's daughter had slapped the Emergency on India eight weeks earlier. Well, the flag simply refused to unfurl when Indira Gandhi tugged. It seemed to be an eternity before a helpful Army officer stepped up, upon which the stubborn knots instantly gave way. And, finally, there was August 15, 1997.