Kirnahar:
As one enters Pranab Mukherjee's village Kirnahar, only two cutouts of the new President can be seen. Roadside tea stalls, with Mr Mukherjee's face on an old calendar, goes about with regular Sunday chores. There were no signs of any celebration in this nondescript township.
But inside Pranab Mukherjee's house, the picture was starkly different from outside. As we entered the activity was perceptible. His eldest sister Annapurna Banerjee or Didi was getting ready to start her morning 'pujo'.
As the family prepared to receive the media, Ms Banerjee decided to pose for the camera rather than begin her pujo. She had a bagful of stories to tell about the new President of India.
She recalled, 44 years ago, one morning when her youngest brother Poltu became a Member of the Parliament; they were having a discussion over a cup of tea sitting on a balcony overlooking the President's stable.
"Looking at the horses, he said 'what fun these horses have as they don't have to do anything and get all the care. Wish I am reborn as one of these'," recalled the octogenarian. "I told him, 'why a horse in the President's stable, you will become the President of the country one day.' This has come true today," Ms Banerjee said with pride in her voice for her brother.
She went into a nostalgic trip about her childhood days in Mirati where they grew up. How Mr Mukherjee would pull her hair, beat her and then make up in the evening by bringing her a fruit or sweet.
Tarun Kumar Bannerjee, his nephew and a professor, said he has seen his 'chotomama' (maternal uncle) since the age of eight and remembers him as extremely hardworking. He recalled that after his post-graduation, Mr Mukherjee began earning by reading English newspapers for a Bengali businessman near his house.
His nephew's wife Madhavi listed the favourite dishes of Mr Mukherjee; luchi and begun bhaja for breakfast, Shukto, chochhori, mochar ghonto, alu posto for lunch, and puffed rice with chunks of coconut rather than the grated one in the evening.
Pranab Mukherjee is not a popular leader even in his own hometown but in his ancestral house he is loved and revered.
He contested the Lok Sabha polls only once from the Bolepur constituency and lost by a margin of almost a lakh votes. It was from Jangipur that he won his first seat in Lok Sabha. But he is still extremely attached to the place which he calls his home and returns to perform Durga Puja every year.
The same pujor dhak or drums were playing today as the result of his victory was announced. Mirati and Kirnahar broke into a celebration.