Ahmedabad:
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi celebrated his 76th birthday on Thursday, his former teacher remembered his sharp memory and spoke about how he had once brought home a baby crocodile, only to release it back on his mother’s advice.
HC Patel was Modi’s science teacher in Class 11-12 at Bhagwat Acharya Narayan Acharya School at Vadnagar.
Later, when he once met Modi, who had become Gujarat’s Chief Minister, seeking a favour regarding the transfer of a relative, Modi refused politely, Patel recalled.
Speaking to the media, Patel talked about the period between June 1965 and May 1967 when he taught the future prime minister.
Modi had once acted in a school play, playing the role of Jogidas Khuman, a famous 19th-century rebel, to raise funds for the compound wall, and received 10-minute applause from the audience, Patel recalled.
Retelling a famous story from Modi’s childhood, Patel said he once brought home a baby crocodile from the Sharmishtha lake.
“His mother Heeraba asked him, ‘What have you done? What would its mother do? You have brought the baby here, but what will happen to its mother?’ She told him to take it back. So, the next day, he released the baby crocodile in Sharmishtha lake,” Patel said.
In 2012, there was a temple consecration ceremony in Patel’s native village, and Modi, then chief minister, accepted the invitation to attend it.
“He has a very sharp memory…. I had taught him but had not realized he would become so famous. But even back then, he was extraordinary. I pray to God to grant him good health so that he may serve the country and the world in the spirit of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (the world is one family),” Patel said.
“We had no idea back then that this person would rise so high and achieve so much. Before he became chief minister, I met his younger brother, Pankaj-bhai, and asked about the possibility; he had said no. But by God’s grace, he became the chief minister,” he said.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
