Ranchi, May 3: Lata Mangeshkar’s Ram ratan dhan payo and Allah tero naam provided the perfect background score as students, teachers and other visitors trooped in and respectfully walked past the black and white photographs of Mahatma Gandhi and his Satyagraha movement.

The six-day photo exhibition, organised by the Jharkhand government to mark completion of 100 years of Gandhi’s satyagraha movement, was inaugurated today.

Organised at the Birsa Mandap at the Raj Bhavan, the photo exhibition, inaugurated by governor Syed Sibtey Razi, was open to all.

The programme, which was attended by chief minister Madhu Koda and deputy chief minister Sudhir Mahto, along with other state ministers, was also well attended by the top university officials, teachers, medicos and students, too.

For the students, especially, it was an exciting experience to be there.

Many of them were from Ranchi Women’s College, Ranchi College and Nirmala Convent, and for most of them it was a first time experience to be there, they admitted.

Rakhi Sahay, a student of Ranchi Women’s College, looked clearly excited as she entered the Birsa Mandap campus.

“It is my first visit inside the Raj bhavan,” she said, beaming with happiness.

“I cross the Raj Bhavan daily, but this is my first visit inside the premises,” said Sudhir Lal, too, a student of Ranchi College.

Taking in the ambience with great enthusiasm, he added that: “This is once in a lifetime opportunity, and I, surely wouldn’t have missed it at any cost.”

While some were excited because it was their first visit to the Raj Bhavan, others, like Shalini Priya, a student of Doranda College, were excited at the opportunity to interact with so many ministers present at the event.

“I have seen them only on hoardings and newspapers. This is the first time I will get to see them in flesh,” she said beaming and hurrying off to be with their friends, who were huddled together as they discussed and admired the photographs that were on display.