FROM playing cricket in sky-high wedge heels, to meeting vulnerable children in the slums of Mumbai and rubbing shoulders with Bollywood’s finest, it was a day of contrasts.
The Duchess of Cambridge and her husband Prince William began their official visit to India and Bhutan on Sunday – with Kate putting on a quick-change fashion show in three colourful outfits that wowed their hosts.
They are determined to do things in style after recent critical headlines about their apparent lack of commitment to their royal duties.
And with 22 engagements in seven days, they have left Prince George and Princess Charlotte in Britain with granny and grandpa Middleton.
The royal couple had arrived in Mumbai – India’s second largest but richest city – overnight on a scheduled British Airways flight with most of their 11-strong entourage.
They went straight to the Taj Palace Hotel, where they also stayed the night, to pay tribute to the 31 guests and staff who died in 2008’s terrorist atrocity, during which ten attackers laid siege to landmarks across the city.
Kate was given a fragrant frangipani garland to wear as she and William laid a wreath amid burning candles in honour of the victims.
The five-star hotel is owned by the Tata family but royal sources denied suggestions that the couple had rejected the offer to stay in the presidential suite, named the Tata Suite, in protest at the current British steel crisis. With 15 rooms it was simply ‘too big for them’, they said.
Their next stop was Mumbai’s Oval Maidan, a large recreational space in the city, where Kate – in £45 Monsoon wedges – faced legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar at the crease.
First the duchess fielded for her husband, clapping enthusiastically as he smacked each ball over the heads of his opponents.
And when she picked up the bat herself she sent Tendulkar’s ball high into the air – only to feign disappointment when she saw it caught by one rather chuffed young player.
Tendulkar said afterwards: ‘They were a remarkable couple and made us feel so comfortable. She batted, she fielded, she did everything!’
Kate also refused to kick off her heels during a football-themed training game with youngsters from Magic Bus, a charity working with Mumbai’s street children, nimbly leaping over cones and dodging around her opponents.
William – more casually dressed than usual in chinos, an unbuttoned white shirt and brown desert-style boots – also proved a dab hand at the game.
They also seemed enchanted by youngsters from the charity Door Step School, which helps thousands of children forced to drop out of education because their families need them to work.
Many are working full-time by the age of seven, earning £3 a day as rag pickers, scavenging rubbish dumps or gutting fish.
Kate knelt down as the children attempted to teach her to count from one to five in Hindi. ‘You get five out of five marks,’ said one youngster.
Afterwards there was a trip to see first-hand the grinding poverty that many of these children are desperate to escape.
The couple went to the 12th century Banganga Water Tank in the Malabar Hill area, where more than 10,000 people live in 1,500 tiny breezeblock two-storey huts crammed into narrow alleyways.
The couple were welcomed by children dancing and playing steel drums and each given a traditional welcome spot on their foreheads.
They then took on slum children at football target practice. Ashok, a coach, called it a ‘dream come true’.
The final engagement of the day was a charity gala at the Taj Palace Hotel where they were joined by the cream of Bollywood royalty.
Actor Shah Rukh Khan said of Kate: ‘Is it OK to say she’s extremely beautiful and elegant? Well she is!’ Actress Madhuri Dixit said: ‘Kate said she loves being here and the people are very welcoming, but she was worried she may miss her children.’
Daily Mail