Bhubaneswar: President Droupadi Murmu on Friday was much delighted and became emotional when she visited the Unit 2 girls’ high school here where she studied class VIII to Class XI from 1970 to 1974.
The President also visited the hostel room of Kuntala Kumari Sabat Tribal hostel where she stayed and studied her schooling and sat for some time on the wooden bed of her hostel room used by her remembering her memories of school days.
The hostel room where she stayed was given a facelift by the school authority. Murmu was delighted when she noticed her photo with her classmates hanging on the wall of the hostel room.
She also met and interacted for a very brief period with her 13 classmates in the school who were eagerly waiting at the school for her since morning to have a glimpse of their schoolmate who had become the President of India.
Her schoolmates have also become very emotional and said they feel proud that she could remember their names and the school days memories. The President posed for a photograph with them and invited them to Raj Bhawan.
All her schoolmates said they wanted to spend some more time with her but due to her busy schedule and protocol, they could not talk much and spend time with the President, once their classmate.
“ It was a historic moment for us and we are so happy that after over four decades we could meet our classmate who is now the country’s first citizen with whom we had spent four years of schooling and have several memories.
This was Murmu’s first official visit to her school after assuming charge of the office of the President of India.
Earlier in the morning, on the second day of her visit to Odisha, the President had visited Tapoban High School located in Khandagiri on the outskirts of the capital city and spent some time with the inmates, mostly tribal students from her native Mayurbhanj district.
She asked the students their names, village and their parent’s name and advised them to concentrate on studying and be a perfect human beings.
The president was accorded a grand welcome at the school. The students sang the Santali song and performed a tribal dance before her.
Murmu told the students that Nobody was her role model and said her grandmother ‘was her inspiration.
On the visit of the President to her school where she studied, BJP MP Aparajita Saranghi tweeted “A young girl who once studied in this school (Unit-II Girls’ High School) has now become the President of this country. I want to pay my respect to this school. We are all very proud” she said.
