BHUBANESWAR: President Droupadi Murmu on Friday paid visit to her alma mater in the city and encouraged students to study well and follow their dreams.
"We all have to go through different situations in life. However, despite challenges we must follow our dreams. Our goal should be to achieve what we want to become in our lives," Murmu said in her address to the students during her visit to Tapoban High School at Khandagiri in the City.
The President was accorded a rousing welcome by the students, teachers and officials on the campus. Governor Professor Ganeshi Lal, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and other delegates accompanied her during her visit to the School.
Murmu during her interaction with the students recalled the difficulties she had to overcome during her school days.
"Things were much different in those days. We didn't have all that you have today," she said.
Murmu said in Uperbeda, the village she hails from, the school was made with mud and had a thatched roof. It also didn't have a proper concrete floor.
"We used to sweep our classroom every day and apply cow dung on floor once every week to keep it clean. Everything has changed now. You students are lucky that you don't have to go through all these," she said.
The President who expressed her happiness while interacting with students said that her role model was her grandmother.
"I didn't have much knowledge about things happening outside. I only had my grandmother and she was my role model. She was a brave lady who always helped everyone in our village Whenever someone in our village is in problem, she would go and help. Everyone knew her," she said.
The President turned emotional when she visited her alma mater Capital Girls High School where she studied Class VIII to XI between 1970 and 1974.
During her 20 minutes stay inside the school campus, she interacted with the students and teachers, visited newly built smart classrooms and also attended a cultural programme.
The President also met alumni including some of her classmates who were studying with her in the school.
The President was felicitated in the school after which she went to Kuntala Kumari Sabat Girls hostel where she was staying during her school and college days.
The hostel had got a facelift ahead of her visit. Murmu went inside the hostel room she was staying and also sat for a while on the bed she was using. "She turned emotional. However, she looked very happy to visit the hostel," said a teacher from the Unit-II school.
Murmu during her visit to the hostel also planted a sapling on the hostel premises.
Students, teachers, and alumni of both Tapoban and Unit II schools were overjoyed when they found the President of India on their campus.
The President was equally excited to meet the students.
"She was so happy to meet the children that she herself wanted to have a photo session with them, though it wasn't in the programme list," said an official of the School and Mass Education department present at the venue at the Unit II Girls High School.
"We were slightly nervous. However, the simplicity with which the President interacted with us, it felt like someone close us has come to meet us after a long time," said a teacher from Tapoban High School.