| Gone is the free-for-all celebration in Patna, where the doors of his house used to be thrown wide open. |
| As Prasad turned 60 yesterday, the day was marked by qawwali, brought to end at 10 pm in view of civic laws banning loud music after that hour, bhajans, light poetry, and a train-shaped cake. |
| Old colleagues of the railway minister insisted they were still "socialist" enough not to sing the bourgeois "happy birthday to you" but admitted they were present when the cake was cut. |
| "We don't know the song. Anyway we were there to wish him. There were enough people to sing," said Sheohar Member of Parliament Sitaram Singh. |
| Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad was pleasantly surprised that the normally loud celebrations ended at 10 pm. Had the celebrations been held in Patna, the qawwali would have continued all night. |
| Continuing, Singh said Lalu Prasad was not a Gemini as some astrologers were saying. "We were all born in villages at a time when the date of birth was not recorded. At the time of admission to school, whatever date was convenient was entered into the records," he said. "This date was made up for admissions," he said. |
| The entire RJD National Executive, which was in New Delhi for its annual meet, was invited for dinner by former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi. The railway minister, who had turned vegetarian when incarcerated under the fodder scam, served Bihari delicacies like litti chokha as well as other vegetarian fare. |
| Today saw Prasad's grandchildren Durga, Aayaana and Aditya, hosting a dinner, attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi. |
| The 60th birthday of India's most colourful politician was definitely an event in itself and showed how long a road he has travelled from a village in Bihar to Lutyen's Delhi. |
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