new delhi many of the 60odd class xi and xii students of rajendra prasad sarvodaya vidyalaya situated on the presidential estate had not slept the night before in anticipation of this hourlong political science class a few had even revised important chapters of their textbook many times to make sure they didnt fail in case questions were asked there was just one their teacher for the day the first citizen himself asked towards the end of the class am i boring you in a relaxed manner president pranab mukherjee took off his watch placed it on a table in front of him and told the class i am not the president today i am just your mukherjee sir nervous and excited the students heard in rapt attention as the president shared how he had to walk 5 km to his school in his native village in west bengal with a towel tied around his waist and another one on his head the second towel had books my trousers and shirt i couldnt afford to get them dirty and wet in the rain you see he said with a smile the idea of holding a class was mooted by delhi chief minister arvind kejriwal and his deputy manish sisodia and fridays programme was part of delhi governments programme be a teacher where renowned personalities from different walks of life like art culture sports business politics and civil services take classes and inspire students to achieve excellence in life my best teacher was my mother i was an extremely naughty child i dont think any of you can match my naughtiness he said among peals of laughter from the students and this naughty child shared the president would accompany the boys of his village who went to graze their cattle and come home only when it got dark as he was mortally afraid of darkness despite being a village boy he also remembered how he was often beaten up by his mother for his naughtiness after that she used to come and fondle me with all love and care and ask me what i had done from the sunrise to sunset which i had to tell in a chronological order looking back i think that chronological recalling sharpened my mind he saidmukherjee who was born in mirati village of birbhum district of west bengal to freedom fighters kamada kinkar mukherjee and rajlakshmi said his fathers life revolved around jail to party office and his mother used to take care of him when asked about his other favourite teacher the president told students it has to be my english teacher i never really liked shakespeare i still remember we had to study a comedy and a tragedy so it was the tempest and julius caesar for us but when sir taught us he would make the class come alive sometimes he would speak like brutus and at another time like antony it all became so interesting and before i knew i had read