Rairangpur: President Droupadi Murmu visited her native village Uparbeda in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district on Friday.
Murmu, who was born in a Santali family in Uparbeda village under Bamanghati sub-division, came to her village and her ancestral house for the first time after assuming the country’s topmost Constitutional post on July 25, 2022.
At Uparbeda, the President turned emotional and said she has never felt the village as a place but as a family.
Soon after President Murmu reached the village, she rushed to Uparbeda Government Upper Primary School, her alma mater. The school and the entire village were decorated to welcome her. While interacting with the students, she said Murmu said, “I am 66 years old and do not feel like growing up. Still, I feel like a child at my school and village. I recall how teachers were teaching us in mud-walled classrooms here.”
Murmu also said that the teachers and villagers treat her like a family member and not an outsider.
“I still recall the days when I was preparing for the Class-VII scholarship examination. Our teacher Madan Mohan Sir took me to his family and I lived with his children while preparing for the examination. The love and affection that I have received from this village and school are heavenly”. Murmu also recalled teachers like Basant Sir and Biswembar Babu and some others who witnessed her childhood.
At a function, the President felicitated her teachers – Bisheswar Mohanta, headmaster of her school, Basudev Behere, her class teacher, and Basanta Kumar Giri, her class teacher in Class-IV and V. She gifted a school bag containing chocolates and a tiffin box to about 200 students of the Uperbeda Upper Primary School.
In her speech, Murmu said told the students to study sincerely and abide by the advice of teachers, parents and elderly persons in the village.
