Former President Pranab Mukherjee died after being in hospital for 20 days
Pranab Mukherjee, who headed several key ministries before becoming President, used to walk 2 km barefoot while going to a village school in West Bengal's Birbhum district wearing a gamcha (traditional towel) during monsoon in the 1940s, his friend professor Amal Kumar Mukhopadhyay said.
Remembering his association with Mr Mukherjee for nearly seven decades since they were admitted to a college in the district in 1952, the academician rued that he could not fulfil his friend's wish to write a biography of him.
The two friends had sometime back decided that Mr Mukhopadhyay would to write a biography of the former President in English. "A few days before he fell ill, Pranab telephoned me and said it was getting late and told me that after the coronavirus pandemic is over, he will come to Kolkata and give me three complete days to record his interview for the book, but that was not to be," Mr Mukhopadhyay said.
The former head of the department of Political Science at Presidency College said Mr Mukherjee went to a free village school at Miriti for his primary education and then to Shibchandra Uchcha Vidyalaya for high school at Kirnahar.
"At that time, those who pursued high school education in the area were sent to Labhpur town, but since Pranab's father Kamada Kinkar Mukhopadhyay was an idealist, he wanted him to pursue his schooling at the institution in nearby Kirnahar," Mr Mukhopadhyay said.
"Since village roads were generally muddy and waterlogged during monsoon, he would have to wear a gamcha at times with his pants in his bag and walk barefoot 2 km to school," he said.
On July 1, 1952, Mr Mukherjee and Mr Mukhopadhyay started attending classes at Suri Vidyasagar College and the seeds of a lifelong friendship were planted there.
After graduation, Mr Mukherjee came to Kolkata and enrolled for Comparative Philology at Calcutta University, but he did not take a liking to the subject and switched to Political Science, Mr Mukhopadhyay said.
After doing his Master in Political Science, Mr Mukherjee also did Master in History before getting an LLB (Bachelor of Law) degree. Mr Mukhopadhyay said his friend used to work as a tutor at that time as he had decided not to take money from his father while pursuing his degree in Kolkata.