Affectionate welcome awaits Pranab Mukherjee at his ‘sasural’

An affectionate welcome awaits President Pranab Mukherjee when he visits his “sasural” for the first time tomorrow in the sleepy Bhadrbila village on the banks of Chitra river, immortalised by Rabindrnath Tagore in his poems.

The village has been gripped by a festive mood ever since the news filtered in that Mukherjee, accompanied by his wife Shuvra who was born in the village and spent a few years of her early life here, would come calling at the ancestral house of his in-laws tomorrow morning.

The house of Mukherjee’s in-laws got a face-lift by Narail District Administration ahead of the first couple’s visit and an 8-km road connecting the district headquarter town of Narail with Bhadrabila has been repaired to enable the President and his wife a smooth drive to their destination.

Kazi Rakib, a resident of Bhadrabila, was agog ahead of Mukherjee’s visit to the village.

“It is a great pleasure for us that Pranab Mukharjee, our brother- in-law, will visit our village. We will accord a warm reception to him,” Rakib said.

Narail Deputy Commissioner Md Zohirul Haque said the President is likely to stay at his father-in-law’s house at the village for about an hour and then leave for Kushtia district to visit Tagore’s Kuthibari at Shilaidaha.

District Administration sources said a helicopter, carrying Mukherjee and Shuvra will land on Narail Government Boys’ High School ground in Narail town from where the first couple will go to Bhadrabila.

Shuvra was born to late Amarendro Ghose and Mira Rani Ghose and is the eldest among four brothers and four sisters.

Shuvra’s family except her brother Kanai Lal Ghose moved to India in 1952, five years after the Partition of the Indian subcontinent.

During the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, Pakistani occupation army and their local collaborators had vandalised Amarendro’s house at Bhadrabila village.

However, Kanai Lal Ghosh rebuilt the house later.

Mukherjee told ATN Bangla TV channel that he had never been to his “sasural” before although Shuvra Mukharjee along with her daughter Sharmistha Mukherjee had visited the house at Bhadrabila in 1995 when they had led a cultural team there.

The President said he has always felt that a trip to Bangladesh is like home-coming and it was his conscious decision to choose this country as his first foreign trip after becoming the President in August last year.

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