Memoir, teaching on Pranab’s to-do list
MUKHERJEE WILL DEMIT OFFICE ON JULY 25. ON THE SAME DAY, HE WILL SHIFT TO 10 RAJAJI MARG, HIS ADDRESS FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE
His library has been quietly shifted to his new address at the capital’s Rajaji Marg. He has cancelled his last foreign trip and has decided to write about his five years at Raisina Hills — President Pranab Mukherjee, 81, is getting ready for a life after Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Mukherjee, the 13th President of India, will demit office on July 25. On the same day, he will shift to 10 Rajaji Marg, his address for the rest of his life. As former President, he will be entitled to all facilities enjoyed by Union cabinet ministers.
All gifts which he has received in the last five years has been sent to the Toshakhana of the President’s House, except the books, as the President is entitled to keep them.
When he set foot into Rashtrapati Bhavan in 2012, his hectic political career paved way for a slow life. Now, even as Mukherjee will be a much more relaxed and free man, he remembers APJ Abdul Kalam told him once, “In comparison to the amount you read, you write very less.”
The President has almost decided to write his next book on the memories of his presidential years.
“I am also thinking of writing an autobiography in Bengali,” Mukherjee said in close quarters. Since becoming President, he has written three books on his political life.
What about the famous diaries he had meticulously written throughout the last 43 years, which is believed to contain fascinating information and deep insights of important events and days? Mukherjee has given strict orders to his family members not to open the diaries as long as he is alive.
CONTINUED ON P 6