NEW DELHI: President Pranab Mukherjee's wife Suvra Mukherjee passed away this morning, August 18, 2015 at 10.51 a.m.
She had been admitted to the Army Referral Hospital and had been critical for while, due to which President Mukherjee had cancelled all his programmes the past week, baring the Independence Day commitments.
First Lady, Suvra Mukherjee was born on September 17, 1940 in Jessore, now in Bangladesh, and married Pranab Mukherjee on July 13, 1957. A graduate of arts, Suvra Mukherjee was an ardent fan of India’s national poet, Rabindranath Tagore.
Condolence:
She was a vocalist of Rabindra Sangeet and performed in the poet’s dance-dramas for long years not only in different parts of India, but also in Europe, Asia and Africa. Suvra Mukherjee had founded the ‘Geetanjali Troupe’, whose mission was to propagate Rabindranath Tagore’s philosophy as expressed through his songs and dance-dramas. She was the guiding force behind all productions of the Troupe. The First Lady was also a highly talented painter who had many group and solo exhibitions to her credit. She considered her mother who was herself a painter as the source of her creative inspiration and her works won critical acclaim.
She also wrote two books: Chokher Aloey which is a personal account of her close interaction with former Prime Minisyer Indira Gandhi and Chena Achenai Chin- a travelogue recounting her visit to China. Suvra Mukherjee and President Pranab Mukherjee have three children Abhijit Mukherjee, Indrajit Mukherjee and Sharmistha Mukherjee.