People bee-line to get clicked with Pratibha

It was a photo opportunity for dozens of Indians in this commercial capital of Brazil as President Pratibha Patil began her first leg of three nation tour to Latin America.

After her brief inaugural speech at the reception hosted in her honour, the organisers of the function, possibly surprised at an early end of the function, asked all those who had gathered to queue up for clicking themselves with the first woman president of India and within no time the entire hall at a five-star hotel saw people bee-lining for the opportunity, taking the security by surprise.

After nearly 30 minutes, the organisers, unable to cope up with the rush decided to call it an end and quickly the President was escorted out of the room.

Patil is on a 13-day visit to Brazil, Mexico and Chile.

In her brief address to the Indian community based in Sao Paulo, the President said both India and Brazil are large democracies and major countries in their respective regions. "The emergence of our two countries as leading players in the global arena has been propelled by their large and qualified manpower resources, big land mass, vibrant trillion dollar economies and the spirit of entrepreneurship that permeates our societies," she said.