Stories of Support

For Bharati “Bee-Bee” Mukherjee, St George Campus is a warm and welcoming space

The Landmark Project offered Bharati “Bee-Bee” Mukherjee a tangible way to honour her son Rajeeb, through supporting a bench in his memory.

Bharati “Bee-Bee” Mukherjee is not a graduate of the University of Toronto, but for her U of T “is like a temple, a place of worship.” A self-described lifelong learner, Bee-Bee has been auditing humanities and language courses at the Faculty of Arts & Science for more than a decade. “The University has always had open doors for me,” she says. “No one here has ever treated me like a stranger; the professors have treated me with such kindness, taking me in as though I’ve been their student forever.”

A LASTING LEGACY

Bee-Bee has generously established a scholarship at U of T called the “Building Canadian Leaders: Rajeeb Mukherjee Scholarship,” named for her son, a graduate of the London School of Economics, who passed away unexpectedly in April of 2015. For Bee-Bee and her husband Dr. Sanjib Mukherjee, the Landmark Project offers another, very tangible, way to honor Rajeeb. “When I learned about the Landmark Project,” says Bee-Bee, “I decided that I could do something for my son. We would name a bench in memory of Raj. It will be permanent and have his name on it.”

AN ELEVATED CAMPUS EXPERIENCE

The Landmark Project is one of the most significant transformations to the St. George campus landscape in the past 200 years. This extraordinary initiative will reclaim the historic campus core for pedestrians by dramatically reducing surface parking around King’s College Circle and Hart House Circle, and will introduce new plazas, pathways, trees and gardens to create a campus experience befitting a top-ranked, global university.

“I study for the joy of studying, not for any reward,” says Bee-Bee. “It is how I stay young and keep my mind open. For me, the University of Toronto is a place of love. A bench not only pays tribute to Raj, it creates a spot where students and others can sit, put their bag down and enjoy this sacred space.”

Posted on June 29, 2018