Money was only problem for Manmohan at Cambridge; he skipped meals at times

New Delhi, PTI: While studying in Cambridge University on a scholarship in the mid 1950s, money was the only real problem for Manmohan Singh and there were times when he had to skip meals or live on a sixpence bar of Cadbury’s chocolate, according to his daughter Daman Singh. Singh earned a First Class Honours (Tripos) degree in Economics in 1957 from University of Cambridge. Daughter Daman Singh came out with a book “Strictly Personal: Manmohan and Gursharan”, published by HarperCollins in 2014, to tell the “story of her parents”. She also mentioned that her father often spoke about his early years, of the hard life in the village as well as the charm of a simpler existence.

Singh was born in Gah in Punjab province’s western region, which now falls in Pakistan. Daman recalled that when once her sister Kiki asked Singh if he wishes to go back to Gah, he replied mildly, “No, not really. That is where my grandfather was killed.” Writing about her father’s days at Cambridge, Daman said money was the only real problem that bothered him as his tuition and living expenses came to about 600 pounds a year while the Punjab University scholarship gave him about 160 pounds. “For the rest he had to depend on his father. Manmohan was careful to live very stingily. Subsidized meals in the dining hall were relatively cheap at two shillings sixpence. He never ate out, and seldom indulged in beer or wine,” she wrote.

Yet he would be in crisis if money from home fell short or did not arrive in time. “When this happened, he skipped meals or got by on a sixpence bar of Cadbury’s chocolate. He would never borrow money his entire life, but this was when he came closest to doing so. The only person he could think of turning to was Madan (close friend Madan Lal Sudan),” the book said.

After the results of the first-year Tripos examination were declared and Singh came first, he wrote to Madan asking not to send him any money from then on. “I think I will get some prize worth about 20 pounds and if I press I might get an Exhibition (an allowance or scholarship), but I am not so greedy. I prefer to wait till next year,” Singh wrote.