Gursharan Kaur (Manmohan Singh’s

Some Lesser Known Facts About Gursharan Kaur

• Gursharan was born into a middle-class trading business family with roots in Dhakam village in Jhelum district.

• She was an average student who was more interested in games and kirtans.

• She aspired to be a school teacher.

• She is devoutly religious and is known for her soothing voice when she sings verses in Gurbani.

• She was an infant when her father was transferred to Nowshera near Peshawar in Pakistan. In 1947, when she was 10 years old, her father was transferred from Lahore to Amritsar, where they narrowly escaped the massacre during the partition of India.

• After her arranged marriage with Manmohan Singh, the couple started living in Sector 11, Chandigarh, where she used to perform kirtan and songs for All India Radio. In 1961, her husband earned a scholarship to do a doctorate from Nuffield College, Oxford, after which she accompanied him with their daughter, Upinder Singh.

  

• When her husband became the Prime Minister of India in 2004, Gursharan came to know about it from TV News and not from her husband.

• In 2014, her daughter, Daman Singh wrote a book titled ‘Strictly Personal: Manmohan and Gursharan.’

  

• In 2019, Divya Seth portrayed her role in the biographical political film ‘The Accidental Prime Minister,’ where Anupam Kher portrayed the role of Manmohan Singh.