Call me Mukherjee sir, says President Pranab to students...............

Interacting with school children on the eve of Teacher's day, President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday said he would be happy if the students called him "Mukherjee sir". The president spoke to the students of a school located within the President's Estate in New Delhi for about half an hour and then asked if they were bored with his lecture.

The students replied in the negative. He then told them that he was not interacting with them as president, but as a teacher. "How would you call me," he asked them and added that he would be happy if they called him "Mukherjee sir".

He also shared with them his own experiences when he was a school student. The students heard him with rapt attention.

Taking a trip down the memory lane, Mukherjee said he was an "unparalleled naughty boy" who used to trouble his mother, as he credited her for all the success he has achieved.

"My best teacher was my mother. As I have said I was an unparalleled. I was a trouble for my mother...after a day's of mischief and other things, I used to receive a good deal of thrashing from her.

"And after that she used to come and fondle me with all love and care and ask me what I had done from the sunrise to sunset, which I had to tell in a chronological order," Mukherjee told students of class XI and XII.

The President, who donned the hat of a teacher on the eve of Teachers' Day, said that mothers are the best teachers. "I must tell you that your mother is best teacher," he said as the students of Dr Rajendra Prasad Sarvodaya Vidyalaya listened with rapt attention.

Mukherjee, who was born in Mirati village of Birbhum district of West Bengal to freedom fighters Kamada Kinkar Mukherjee and Rajlakshmi, said his father's life revolved around jail to party office and his mother used to take care of him.

The President said he used to accompany the boys of his village, who went with cow herds, and used to play. "But, as the sun would appear to set, I used to rush back
home as I was mortally afraid of darkness despite being a village boy," Mukherjee admitted.

"I was a naughty boy. I used to give trouble to my mother endlessly. I am sure none of you are or have been so naughty," he said as the students burst into laughter.

Mukherjee said that he was not a bright student. "I was just an average student. I had to walk five kms for my school and used to complain to my mother about the distance.

"She used to tell me that she had no other option and always advised me to work hard."