Nepal’s president gets nostalgic during visit to alma mater

CHANDIGARH - Nepal President Ram Baran Yadav got nostalgic as he visited his alma mater, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), here Friday and cracked jokes and shared his Chandigarh experiences with the audience.

It was a rare opportunity for Yadav, who turned 63 Friday, to address the convocation at his alma mater as the chief guest. He had done his post-graduation in internal medicine from the PGIMER, north Indias premier medical institute, in 1985.

Going back in memory lane, Yadav talked about Chandigarhs cleanliness, its architect Le Corbusier, Sukhna Lake, Punjabi culture, former Punjab chief minister Pratap Singh Kairon and his inspirations from this region.

Namastey, I am very happy once again on coming to Chandigarh, especially to PGIMER as a chief guest. This city beautiful, which is named after the fort of Chandi temple, is one of the most well-planned cities.

It is one the cleanest cities and also has world-famous Sukhna Lake. I am feeling deeply honoured on coming here. All alumni of PGIMER are proud of global reputation of its high quality education.

I am happy that two members of my family; my son and daughter-in-law also graduated from this institute. Even my personal physician has studied at PGIMER, he pointed out.

Yadav felicitated around 40 meritorious students, with gold and silver medals, for their outstanding research and academic excellence in different fields of medicine.

“I am very much influenced with the works of Mahatma Gandhi, Subash Chandra Bose, Jawaharlal Nehru and Kairon. I was born in Nepal, brought up in Nepal; but I learnt the art of medicine in Chandigarh and joined politics after my stay in Bengal. I am very much impressed with the heroic deeds of Indian heroes. I have also read Discovery of India written by Nehru, he stated.

Reminiscing about his days in Chandigarh, Yadav said, It was a very good time, I still remember it.”

Yadav, who was sworn in as the first president of Nepal in July 2008, did his MBBS from the Calcutta Medical College. His elder son Chandra Mohan Yadav and his daughter-in-law also studied from PGIMER.