From his early days to becoming the PM, here are all life details of birthday boy Narendra Modi

In the early days, child marriage was a common practice and Modi’s father got Modi engaged to Yashodaben when he was all of six years. This was the first stage. The second stage came when Modi turned 16. That time when the bride was supposed to come to husband’s house, Modi told Yashodaben he was not the right person for marriage and even suggested her to go for second marriage. That was the last interaction he had with his wife.

During his school days, Modi would run between the two lectures to his father’s tea shop and serve tea to passengers. As he had no watch, he used to rely on the whistle of the train. He would carry an aluminium kettle and run to serve people. His normal routine was walking to the station at 5 am, carry essential items to the tea stall. Modi’s mother Hiraba used to wash utensils at people’s houses to make extra money and also fetch water from wells for them.

Modi used to go for a swim twice in day in a River. That river had a lot of crocodiles and once he was hit by one. Modi got stitches on his ankle. This incident did not scare him and went again for swimming in the same river after recovering. He once found a baby crocodile at the river bank and got it home to pet him. But on his mother’s insistence, dropped it back in the river.

It was the then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who asked Modi to stand for elections in Gujarat. Modi was reluctant as many senior leaders and his close friends in the BJP would take offence. He went to Advani was advice and he also said what Vajpayee said. Modi became the chief minister Gujarat in 2001. And since then, everything is history.

Modi joined the RSS shakha when he was in fifth standard. A new teacher had come to his BN High School and started a Bal Shakha. Modi left his home in Vadnagar in 1970 and came home for a short time during Emergency. In his early days, Dasrathbhai Laxmandas Patel, better known as DL, was a RSS insider and knew everything about Modi and his thinking. He was afterwards formally inducted into RSS in 1972.

Gujarat was the first state to raise its voice against the Congress party as students from Morbi Engineering College agitated against spiralling mess bills. Gujarat was warming up to the BJP and LK Advani was the national president in 1986. In 1987, Modi was asked by the RSS to work from BJP. In 1988, he came organising secretary of BJP’s Gujarat unit.

When Modi used to serve tea in trains, there were lot of army men going to Mehsana. Modi was inspired by them and wanted to learn more about life. Since beginning, he was more interested in studying about Swami Vivekananda, his ideologies than regular studies. He wanted to do something for the mankind and experience more about life.

During his growing up days, many astrologers predicted Modi would either become a monk or would do something great for the country. His father used to be worried about Modi turning recluse. During his schools and college days also, Modi participated in plays and informed about inequality and gender bias. He was deeply influenced by Buddha’s teachings and learnt about them in depth.

Narendra Modi was born in a very poor family of Ghanchi caste which falls in OBC category on September 17, 1950. His father, Damodardas ran a small tea shop near Vadnagar Railway Station. Modi, who was fondly called as Kumar by his father, used to serve tea to passengers in the trains. He used to serve tea to sadhus near the railway station and was impressed by their thoughts and sermons.