Meet Modi’s childhood friend

Friends are for a lifetime. This saying is so true for all of us, even our Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

They were born together, they studied together and today, both of them completed 65 years of their life. We are talking about Niranjan Naik, a resident of Navrangpura and a retired engineer from Doordarshan.

Both Naik and Modi were born on 17th September 1950 in Vadnagar and went to the same school later on. Today, Naik took pride to say that the way Modi has built his career is impressive.

"But Narendra still remembers each friend by name. I haven't met him after he became Prime Minister but I used to click his photos when he came to Ahmedabad to address rallies," he says.

While recollecting the old days, Naik said that both of them joined Navin Sarvavidyalaya – one of the two schools in Vadnagar in those days—in class 6.

After being a part of RSS local shakha, they studied together till class 12th but opted for different ways afterwards.

Naik also shared a couple of incidents which he cherishes even now. He says, Modi was an attentive student, a good leader and a person with determination.

Narendra Modi had a fascination for the uniform even as a teenager, said Naik. "Being an NCC cadet, Narendra went all the way to Mehsana to see Army troops getting down at the railway station for the 1965 war with Pakistan," he said.

Not just this, but the incident in which Modi is said to have fought a crocodile, was true. "There were a lot of crocodiles in Sharmistha lake where we used to swim. We were not afraid as we believed that if we did not harm the crocodiles, they would not harm us. Narendra, whom we fondly called ND, used to play with the tiny crocodiles on the riverbank."

Recalling some more incidents Naik said, “I had gone to Bhadrakali temple one day when I saw a man sitting in an auto," said Naik. "It took me some time to realize that it was Narendra with a beard and dark sunglasses."

Naik, while working with Aakashvani and Doordarshan met Modi after he became the Chief Minister of Gujarat. And the erstwhile CM never hid the fact that two of them were friends.
Image: indiatimes