chandigarh dr manmohan singh and his friends used to go to kiran cinema in sector 22 from panjab university pu on rickshaws every friday to watch a movie he and his wife used to love gorging on rajmachawal on sundays his parents provided all the goodies for the first lohri celebration of the newlymarried couple former pu vicechancellor r p bambah shared these morsels of information as he recalled his more than 50 years old association with the former prime minister the relationship began during the undergraduate days of manmohan singh in panjab university in the 1950s the university was then located in hoshiarpur bambah was a reader in the mathematics department it was a small campus with only a few departments all faculty members had a good interaction it was there that prof s b rangnekar from the economics department introduced me to manmohan singh as one of his brightest studentsmanmohan singh graduated in economics in 1952 from pu and completes his masters degree in 1954 he was the only student from his department to pass in first division i remember telling him that he should not stick to civil services but do something more to contribute in a larger manner he then went to university of cambridge st johns college which was my college too bambah said manmohan singh pursued honours degree in economics and returned to panjab university in 1957 in 1958 the campus shifted to chandigarh bambah was then a professor yet again being a small campus with less than 50 faculty members the personal connect was strongerin 1958 manmohan singh and two other young faculty members got married when their brides joined them our wives being elder took care of them it was just like the entry of a new family member we had a grand celebration on their first lohri manmohan singhs parents were merchants of dry fruits in amritsar and they provided all the goodies for the celebration bambah recalledhe also shared manmohan singh and his friends used to go to watch movies to kiran cinema every friday on rickshawsthe association did not end even when manmohan singh was living abroad once during the 1960s manmohan singh was in new york and i in columbus ohio my uncle and aunt came to visit us but since their flight got delayed they could not catch the connecting flight from new york at that time manmohan singh specially took a subway train from his house to the airport and got them home the next day he again dropped them to the airport bambah saidhe also remembered how manmohan singh helped his daughter in geneva switzerland bambah also had the opportunity to have lunch with manmohan singh after he became the prime minister though i was his professor and he respected me we only shared a personal relationship even when i met him after he became the prime minister our conversation was nonacademic and nonpolitical bambah saidhe further said whenever we visited manmohan singh in delhi