Pratibha ji in Kolkata

President Pratibha Patil was in Kolkata today. I called on her, it was a courtsey visit.

I have known Pratibha ji since she became the Governor of Rajasthan. She has attended many functions requested or organised by me in my home district in Rajasthan as well as in Kolkata. When she was announced the President of India, I could not believe that she was at my residence for dinner a few days prior to the announcement.

The last time she was in Kolkata as the President of India, I went to meet her along with Hashim Abdul Halim, Speaker, West Bengal Legislative Assembly, Syed Md Masiah, chief whip, and Dilip Bannerjee, author of the book Election Recorder (picture).

But today I met her alone and after the pleasantries I presented her with my book Aapbiti Jagbiti (picture). The book was recently published by Rajkamal Prakashan and I have received very few copies in the first lot. The is expected to be in the market in a week or two. I have done anything to formally launch the book but yes, I did present one copy of the book to Shabana Azmi when she came to Kolkata earlier this month. Pratibha ji asked me about the contents of the book and expressed surprised on learning that I had written the book. She had no idea about my interest in writing. At the Raj Bhawan I also met Partho Chatterjee, Sudip Bandhopadhyay and Pradip Bhattacharya. Pradip da told me that he enjoyed reading travelogues and could read Hindi. He requested me to send a copy of the book to him.

ess bee