Teachers' Day 2020: Pranab Mukherjee's quotes that inspire generations

Pranab Mukherjee

Post-independence September 5th or Teachers' Day became one of the most cherished days among children and adults alike because it not only recognised the contribution of teachers in nation building but also celebrated the spirit of a new India, sovereign India.

India celebrated first Teachers' Day on September 5th 1962, in honor of Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan who was a teacher par excellence and was born on the same date in 1888.

Ahead of Teachers' Day this year, we lost another stalwart and an incredible teacher; Pranab Mukherjee. He, once, was a teacher but it's the examples he has set through his life that makes him a Guru.

Speaking of being a teacher, he once took a class in a government school in Delhi and everything that he said there would inspire many generations to toil and achieve. For Teachers' Day 2015, on Arvind Kejriwal's request, Mukherjee spoke at a school within the President's Estate. He also asked the students if they were getting bored of his lecture, reports NDTV.

He connected with students and told them to call him "Mukherjee Sir." "Here I am no longer a president or a minister; I am just your 'Mukherjee Sir'. I will be very happy if you call me 'Mukherjee Sir'," he said.

Wearing a 'gamcha', Pranab Mukherjee used to walk 2 km barefoot to school in monsoon: Friend

1. "I was not a very bright student but I had to work very hard because ours was an extremely poor and backward area. My district had a population of a little more than a million but there were only 14 High Schools"
2. "From my house, my school was little more than five kilometre away...no question of roads...we had to walk through paddy fields. During rains it was very difficult - particularly in July, August and September"
3. "I used to wrap a coarse towel around my waist. In another coarse towel I would wrap my pant, shirt and books, and tied them to my head."
4. "We used to read under kerosene lamps and hardly there were any desks; we sat on mats. In college, classrooms were more or less well equipped"
5. "My mother used to tell me 'what is your option? You have no option...if you don't have an option, don't grumble and work hard'..."
6. "If someone asked me 'Who is your best teacher? I will perhaps say - 'my best teacher was my mother.'"
7. "As Indians, we must, of course, learn from the past; but we must remain focused on the future. In my view, education is the true alchemy that can bring India its next golden age"
8. "A teacher gives himself to the students; the job of a student is to draw as much he can"
9. "Democracy gives support to common people to fulfil their aspirations and in post independent India we have nurtured democracy"
10. "A village boy - in 1946 wading through waist deep water - would reach his school, wrapping a coarse towel on his head. It is because of democracy he could reach Raisina Hills"

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