An Ukrainian student welcomes President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam at a reception hosted by the Indian community in Kiev on Wednesday. (PTI)

Kiev (Ukraine), June 2: After the revelry in Reykjavik and excitement in the Alps, it’s exam time in Ukraine.

Travelling with a teacher-President can’t be all play and no work, the delegation accompanying A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on his Europe tour has found out.

As their plane took off from Keflavik airport in Iceland, Kalam set his team of MPs, scientists and senior bureaucrats a task: they must tell him in writing what they had learnt during the past 10 days’ travel through Russia, Switzerland and Iceland.

The note, to be handed in within two days, must also contain their opinion on how they should be advancing India’s interests in Ukraine.

While this was not exactly a test in rocket science, the mood in the aircraft was definitely apprehensive as the President’s message was conveyed to all by the Union minister of state for non-resident Indians, Jagdish Tytler.

Some of the MPs, who included TDP’s N.P. Durga and Congressman Milind Deora, got busy jotting down points.

“Why do you find it funny?” an official asked the grinning mediamen around him. “It will be your turn next.”

There was good news for everybody, though. The two-day deadline is likely to be extended because of the President’s busy schedule in Ukraine ? where he will hold bilateral talks and visit defence sites ? a senior official said with relief written all over his face.

Presidential aides who have been travelling with Kalam regularly were not surprised by the diktat.

The President loves to hear from his companions whether they have learnt anything during their travels with him, an official said.

But if Kalam has injected a dose of seriousness into what must have mainly been a junket for his delegation, he has also shown during the tour that he is capable of doing the opposite as well.

On this occasion, too, he had caught the Indian team by surprise.

At a brainstorming session on earthquake prediction techniques with Iceland’s scientists, Kalam had suddenly stopped the discussions saying they were getting too serious.

“So let us sing to change the mood,” the President told the astonished meeting. He then asked his Indian companions to take the lead.

There followed a period of hesitation, during which the Indians kept exchanging embarrassed glances among themselves.

Finally, IFS officer Shashi Tripathi saved the day, stepping forward to sing Rabindranath Tagore’s Ekla Chalo Re, supposedly a favourite with the President.

Then the Iceland scientists got into the act, singing a folk song with gusto, led on by cheers from a relieved group of Indians.