New Delhi, India (BBN)-Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will attend the last rites of Indian President Pranab Mukherjee’s wife Suvra Mukherjee on Wednesday.
First Lady Suvra Mukherjee, President Pranab Mukherjee’s wife of 58 years, was 74.
She hailed from Jessore, now in Bangladesh, and had migrated to Kolkata at the age of 10 years, reports Zeenews.
According to Rashtrapati Bhawan, the last rites will be held at 13, Talkatora Road, the residence of Suvra’s son, Abhijit Mukherjee.
The cremation ceremony will be held at the Lodhi Road Crematorium at 10:00am on Wednesday.
Born on September 17, 1940, Suvra, a graduate, was an ardent fan of India’s national poet Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore.
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.
Married to Pranab Mukherjee on July 13, 1957, Suvra Mukherjee was an accomplished Rabindra Sangeet exponent.
The couple have two sons and a daughter.
Her son Abhijeet Mukherjee is a Congress MP from Jangipur, West Bengal, while daughter Sharmistha is an accomplished dancer and has joined the Congress party.
Another son is Indrajit Mukherjee.
During his state visit to Bangladesh in March 2013, President Mukherjee paid his first visit to his “sosur bari”, or in-laws’ house, where the couple were given the traditional welcome accorded to newly-weds, complete with conch-shells being blown and ‘uloo dhoni’ and ‘mangal deep’ aarti.
The grand family welcome at Bhadrabila village, some 9 km from Narail town, probably made up for the physical stress she had to endure, being wheel-chair bound throughout the trip.
She is not known to have accompanied her husband on a foreign tour after that.
Her ancestors had migrated to India in early 1950s after the 1947 partition.
BBN/AI/SS