Diana princess of wales India Avanti Reddy
Avanti Reddy was only four years old when she met the Princess of Wales during a visit to Lalapet Government High School in Hyderabad in 1992. Princess Diana watched as Avanti performed a traditional Indiana dance choreographed by her mother Japamala Rani before the princess placed her on her knee, creating an iconic image of her visit. Recounting the days events, Avanti, now 28 told the Mail Online: “I was the youngest girl there. We performed a tribal Lambadi dance. “Diana saw me sitting on the ground, picked me up and took me back to stage and put me on her knee.
Getty Princess Diana watches as Avanti Reddy (C) dances
“She asked me what my name was, so I told her and which my school was and class. I had a cold so she wiped my nose with her own handkerchief. “She kept me with her the whole time then as she was going said, ‘I don't want to leave you’. “She was a very motherly figure, I can remember that. She said "I don't have a daughter, so today you are my daughter’.” Avanti added she remembered that Diana was wearing high heels during the visit despite the sandy forecourt and wondered how she managed to was so fast in them.
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The former director of the school Pronoti Suhasini Kavoori, now 60, told how the princess was taken with the young dancer. She said: “Avanti was very bold – she was not conscious of who was watching. When I saw her dance so confidently, I knew that she should be at the front. “Diana came down from the stage and spent time with the children. Then she said she was taking the girl [Avanti] back to the UK, carried her to the stage and sat her on her lap. “All my bosses were worried, saying, "We'll carry her," but she wouldn't allow them near her.”
Getty Princess Diana with Avanti Reddy on her knee in India
Her uncle had made plans for Avanti to visit Diana in 1997 but the plans never came to fruition after Princess Diana died in a car crash in Paris in August that year. Avanti said: “When I got older I started to realise more about who Princess Diana was. “I read her biography and I always wanted layered hair like hers, but it's not possible to become Princess Diana. “I appreciate all the work she did for charities and all the things she did for poor children and people with leprosy.
Getty Princess Diana during her visit to India