Pranab returns to his youth with trip to Santiniketan

The President took a trip down memory lane, dotted with recollections of his college, teachers and even a banyan tree on the campus of his alma mater. Surojit Ghosh Hazra reports.

How many of us remember our student registration number in college? Or the date when we collected our graduation marksheet? On Wednesday, a 75-year-old diminutive student went back to his alma mater, Vidyasagar College in Suri in south Bengal's Birbhum district, and reeled off his registration number as well as the date when he collected his marksheet. The years were 1952 and 1956, respectively. The student: Pranab Mukherjee.

The President took a trip down memory lane, dotted with recollections of his college, teachers and even a banyan tree on the campus on Wednesday as the most famous student of the college kept reeling off numbers, dates and emotions.

“It is indeed a moment of joy and nostalgia to be back at the college where I spent four of the best years of my youth. It seems like yesterday that I was admitted for the ISc course in 1952. The registration fee at that time was R2. I went on to do the BA course from 1953-56 and I distinctly remember collecting my graduation marksheet on August 13, 1956 from this college,” said Mukherjee, who is also a resident of this arid district.

“I used to stay at the chhatrabash (hostel) situated north of the Nilakshi (another hostel). There were eight boys' hostels in the college. My batchmates included Gopal Sarkar, Amal Mukhopadhyay, Dwipendu Banerjee, Angshu Bhusan Bhattacharya…I recall them and their families vividly. I am very happy to see some of them here today,” he said.