Jan 5 not my real birthday, says Didi ‘OFFICIAL AGE WRONG’
Tamaghna.Banerjee@timesofindia.com 09.01.2025
Kolkata : Three days after she was wished on her birthday, CM Mamata Banerjee said on Wednesday that Jan 5 was not the day she was born but just a random date that her father had put in the school records. The date, therefore, got mentioned in her certificates. Banerjee explained that she was a “home delivery product” (born at home) and did not know her real birthday. She added that she did not like her name either. “Many people celebrate and wish me on my birthday (Jan 5). But I believe I was born later. There is a poem that goes, ‘jonmo hobe sedin, ei prithibi theke bidaay nebo jedin’ (I will be born on the day I leave this world) — that’s my viewpoint,”
Banerjee said while attending a Students’ Week event at Dhono Dhanyo auditorium on Wednesday. Banerjee said: “We are home delivery products... I did not choose my name, age or surname. Many people wish me happy birthday on Jan 5, but I do not like that day at all. It’s just what my parents put on the certificate. When I was in college, my brother once told me, ‘do you know how dad decided your age?’ He said there was a six month difference between our ages on the certificate. I asked how. My brother said that when our father went for my school admission, he asked the headmaster, who was also his friend, to write down any age. This was a common practice in the past for those like us born at home — home delivery.” “So, the real age remains hidden, and the fake age on the certificate is what people assume to be true. I could share this story today because my brother is here. My age is five years off and when I found out, I tried a lot to correct this. I even wrote about it in a book called ‘Ekante’. Even my name is not to my liking, but it happened anyway.” Banerjee, in her memoir ‘Ekante’ (1995), wrote that she was born during Durga Puja
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