Madam President

 Hi Kapus,
 

The blog today is about India getting her 15th President, Droupadi Murmu - our second lady President and the first ever President from tribal background
Now, if you wonder why this piece of news is important, well there are several reason

For starters, it's always good to know the name of the head of states of countries (especially one where you reside). In India, the Prime Minister commands all the power, but the President of India is still considered the Head of the State and has all the Armed forces reporting into her
 
However, the main reason the above news is impotant, is your Panaji Aaji - that's your Dadoo's Mumma's mumma.In case you need a reminder - this is picture of you with her when you just 9 months old
 
 
She stays with Chaya aaji in Thane, which is very close to Mumbai and she has this amazing ability to tell you all the President's of India in the correct chronological order. She has also actually written down the list in Kanadda - something which I will try and get for you someday

Let me tell you a little bit about your Panaji Aaji - the one word which describes here is Courage. She lost her husband very early and almost single-handedly raised her three daughters'. This feat becomes even more astonishing if I tell you that she never worked or had a job, but knew very well how to put the pension money she received to good use
 
I never spoke to her daily, but she had this amazing ability to understand exactly what I was going through and go out of her way to help me. When my family was going through a rough patch financially, she would secretly slip me some cash, every time I visited, and asked me to use it for my expenses, tuitions etc
Being her grandson though, I barely used up 10% of what she would give and saved up the rest. In essence, I sort of learned how to invest  from her and hence, she would always tell everyone that I am 'dahiryawaan' like her 

So, as a dedication to your Panaji Aaji, I have decided to take the tradition forward and learn about all the Presidents of India. Remember she doesnt have Google or Wikipedia to help her - so here goes my list without any outside help

1. Rajendra Prasad
2. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
3. Zakir Hussain
4. VV Giri
5. Fakruhuddin Ahmed
6. Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy
7. Zail Singh
8. R Venkataraman
9. Shankar Dayal Sharma
10. K R Narayanan
11. APJ Abdul Kalam
12. Pratibha Patil
13. Pranab Mukherjee
14. Ram Nath Kovind
15. Droupadi Murmu

Now, to talk a little bit about the Madam President - she hails from a small village in Odisha and worked as a Teacher for sometime before moving into active politics. She joined the BJP and became an MLA from her district purely based on hard work
She had to also face her share of adversities as she lost her husband and both her sons in an accident and she had to overcome all that depression to earn the title of becoming the first citizen of India

Hence, in a country where a woman from a small tribe can become President and a chai-wallag can become Prime Minister - there is no stopping you from becoming whatever you dream of 
The path will not be easy and it will take a herculean effort to get it done - but in the end it's all about focus, hard-work, a little bit of luck and the one things you can take away from Panaji Aaji - Courage!
 

Here is the latest photo of her watching the Madam Presidents' swearing-in ceremony. She has this dream that someday someone from our family will become the President and now even I hope that day does come

Regards,
Dadoo

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