President Pranab Mukherjee visits the college where he taught

AMTALA, WB: President Pranab Mukherjee today took a trip down the memory lane when he visited a college here where he had taught 53 years ago before joining politics.

Mukherjee said that he has had a "long and memorable" association with Vidyanagar college where he spent five years teaching political science in the 1960s.

"Whenever I come to this college I am overwhelmed by a sense of nostalgia," Mukherjee said.

He had visited this institution in South 24 Paragans district in January 2013 when he laid the foundation stone of the new buildings which he inaugurated today.

Mukherjee said that just about a month after joining as a teacher, he was elected as teachers' representative to the governing body and later became vice-principal. Eventually he went on to become its officiating principal.

In 1968, encouraged by the college founder president late Harendranath Majumder, Mukherjee resigned from his job and joined politics.

The President recalled that when he started as a teacher, the college hardly had 40-50 students and said now it has become a big institution.

Stressing that educational institutions play a pivotal role in inculcating in the youth core civilisational values, he said that this will go a long way in surmounting the contemporary moral challenges which the country is facing.