NEW DELHI: In a book written by Manmohan Singh’s daughter, it was revealed that during his stay in the UK, the former prime minister sometimes survived on a sixpence Cadbury’s chocolate bar instead of a full meal due to problems financial.
In the book titled “The Strictly Personal Book: Manmohan and Gursharan in 2014”, Daman recounted his father’s time at Cambridge and said that financial difficulties were his main concern. His tuition and living expenses amounted to about £600 a year, while his scholarship from Punjab University provided him only about £160.
“Manmohan was careful to live very stingily. The subsidized meals in the mess hall were relatively cheap: two shillings and sixpence. He never ate out and rarely indulged in beer or wine. He either skipped meals or made do with with a sixpence Cadbury’s chocolate bar. He never borrowed money in his entire life, but that was when he came closest to doing so. The only person he thought of turning to was Madan (his close friend). Madan Lal Sudan), the annotated book.
After securing first rank in his first-year Tripos exam, Singh informed Madan that he no longer needed financial support. “I think I’ll get a prize of about £20 and if I insist I might get exposure (a grant or a scholarship), but I’m not that greedy. I’d rather wait until next year,” he wrote.
Singh graduated with honors in Economics from the University of Cambridge in 1957.
Daman Singh also reflected on his father’s frequent recollections of his early years, describing both the difficulties of village life and the appeal of its simplicity. Born in Gah, located in the western region of Punjab province (now in Pakistan), Singh had a deep connection to his roots. However, when his daughter Kiki once asked him if he wanted to return to Gah, he politely replied, “No, not really. That’s where my grandfather was killed.”
Daman also mentioned that his father used to sing at family gatherings and picnics. “Whenever we went on a picnic, people used to sing. He knew a couple of songs. He would sing ‘Lagta nahin hai ji mera’ and Amrita Pritam’s poem ‘Aakhan Waris Shah noon, kitey kabran vichon bol’,” he wrote.
According to Daman, his father had a keen sense of humor, which was most evident when he was with friends, including economists. “It was comforting to know that he could laugh and make jokes too. With us, he rarely did,” she said.
He also liked to give people nicknames. “Unbeknownst to them, one of our uncles was ‘John Babu’, another was ‘Jewel Babu’ and a third, thanks to his pointed turban, was ‘Chunj Waley’. My mother was ‘Gurudev’ and the three of us were ‘ Kick’, ‘Little Noan’ and ‘Little Ram’. Some of the other names he coined were less charitable,” Daman wrote.
Even the family dog, Penu, was not spared from his playful creativity, as Singh gave him a series of affectionate nicknames such as ‘Nut Babu’, ‘Nutter’ and ‘Douse Fellow’, and even composed little jingles around him. .