Queen of America

"Mrs. Kennedy, Zindabad"--long live Mrs. Kennedy. That was the cry that welled up in thousands of Indian throats last week as Jacqueline Kennedy paraded across India in triumph, more than making up by her charm, good looks and splendidly attired figure for three postponements and at least 47 separate schedule changes. The trip, undertaken as a result of Prime Minister Nehru's personal invitation, was semiofficial, but it had most of the trappings, tight schedules and points-of-interest panoply of a full-fledged state visit. Hailed as the Amriki Rani, or Queen of America, Jackie was accompanied wherever she went by elegantly attired attendants who, with their turbans tilting solicitously, served her food, protected her with parasols from India's searing sun, and performed the sundry duties that attend a queen--even of America.

Inevitably, there were the prescribed calls. Jackie journeyed to the burning ghat on the Jumna River, laid a bouquet of white roses on the spot where Gandhi was cremated in 1948. Visiting a home for vagrant boys in Delhi and the children's ward of a hospital, she made her first namastes--the Indian palms-together greeting--and tried out her Hindi ("What is your name?"). She also paid a call on India's President Rajendra Prasad at the presidential palace in New Delhi, and though she ate Western food during most of her trip, gamely dug into chicken korma and alu-mattar, washed down with spiced orange punch.

"She Wears 10A." With such courtesies attended to, Jackie boarded a special air-conditioned train for a look at India's tourist attractions. At Fatehpur Sikri, she watched in fascination as breechclothed youths made a risky, 100-ft. dive off a rampart into a well--and then did it all over again when Jackie discovered that her sister, Lee Radziwill, who was traveling with her, had fallen behind and missed the show. Sailing down the Ganges River on a marigold-decorated boat, Jackie inspected the burning and bathing ghats along the shore. In Agra she was "overwhelmed by a sense of awe" at the sight of the shimmering Taj Mahal in sun and moonlight. "I have seen pictures of the Taj," she said, "but for the first time I am struck with a sense of its mass and symmetry." The Indians, who crowded in everywhere for a glimpse of her, were also overwhelmed. Said a confused cab driver who recalled President Eisenhower's 1959 visit: "Why is a young woman like that married to such an old man?"

A spokesman had sternly announced that "Mrs. Kennedy does not regard this trip as a fashion show." But the 70-odd correspondents with her paid no heed. Whether she wore a Cassini evening dress or a Tassell gown--all duly recorded by reporters--Jackie shone even among the colorful saris of the Indian women around her. When she slipped off her shoes and put on violet velvet slippers to visit the memorial to Mahatma Gandhi, Chicago Daily News Correspondent Keyes Beech was quick to peek inside the shoes, triumphantly cabled home: "I can state with absolute authority that she wears 10A and not 10AA." So clothes-conscious were the newsmen that they even asked U.S. Ambassador to India John Kenneth Galbraith who had designed his suit.

Ev & Charlie. Jackie donned jodhpurs for a few jumps on a horse named Princess. Her ride was flawless, but an embarrassed Indian officer was thrown. Said the First Lady of her horse at ride's end: "She jumped like a bird." Jackie fed pandas and an elephant, watched a cobra rise to music, saw a battle between a mongoose and a snake. Among the many gifts she received were a pair of tiger cubs that were first named Ev and Charlie (for G.O.P. Congressional Leaders Everett Dirksen and Charles Halleck)--until one turned out to be a female. It was all very exotic, exciting, and a bit exhausting for anyone--even though Jackie occasionally managed to sleep late. But there was more to come. At week's end she flew into Udaipur for a restful stay at the palace of its Maharana before embarking on a five-day visit to Pakistan and its gallant, military-trained President Ayub Khan.

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