Kolkata, Jan 26: With different sort of age row creeping up in India in recent times, the latest submission by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on her age is sure to stir a hornet's nest. In her recently published memoirs 'My Unforgettable Memories', Mamata has revealed that she is actually 5 years younger than her official age on records.

Her memoirs mentions that the error was done by her father who put five years to her age so that she could appear in the school leaving examination without hassle. All this while, her age was believed to be 57, when she originally was 5 years younger.

Banerjee writes, "I was not even 15 when I wrote my school final examination and would have been disqualified for being underage. So, my father gave a fictitious age and birthday to get around the problem. The result: a new birthday and five years added to my real age."

The book also gives away Mamata 'Didi's' real birthday which is on Oct 5, instead of Jan 5 that was earlier considered her date of birth. She claims that this matter was clarified when her mother had once given her a horoscope that mentioned the real date.

The book says that Mamata's mother used to celebrate her birthday every Ashtami (the eighth day of Durga Puja which falls in October) with a special feast comprising of rice pudding. She says that she has so far celebrated two birthdays in a year.

The Lok Sabha website displays Mamata's date of birth as January 5, 1955. She had resigned last year as the MP to take over the reins as Chief Minister of West Bengal. In her memoirs published by Roli Books, she states, "To the world at large, my school certificate with its erroneous date of birth is the legally valid document."

Earlier when Mamata inquired with her mother on the erroneous date, she had replied, "Darling, we are not city-bred people. Neither you nor your elder brother was born in a hospital. Where would I get a birth certificate detailing your birthday and year?"

OneIndia News