A hurried post after almost an eternity, chiefly to not let go of the excitement.
Amma's friend is a part of popular news-reader of yesteryear, Varadarajan's drama troupe, which had gone to Gujarat for performing there. One (or more) of the members seem(s) to have been a Modi-fan and expressed interest in meeting the man. Somehow, someone seems to have got hold of the Chief Minister's Secretariat's office, just to give it a shot. When the person at the other end said he'd get back in 15 minutes, our folks got skeptical and thought it was as good as gone. When they were consoling each other with "Hey, at least we tried"s, about 10 minutes later, they got a call saying the CM would meet them for half an hour the same day at 12 Noon. This was the day or a day after he had returned from China.
Our folks, whose excitement knew no bounds, immediately bounded off to the CM's home at about 11:30 AM and were escorted to a room. Just as the clock struck 12, in walked Narendra Modi, with a cordial "Namaste" to all. He then proceeded to ask each person individually to introduce himself/herself and asked what their play was about. Then asked them if they had been to the newly renovated Akshardham temple. And casually, rattled out that there were about 5 lakh Tamilians in Surat, while they constituted the largest population (about 1 lakh) in Maninagar, his home constituency, where their Drama was staged. Our folks were quite amazed at how the man (cliché alert) had facts at his fingertips.
Then Modi saab spoke about the Biogas plants that were in operation in Gujarat and mischievously asked them if they needed some, seeing how power-deficient TN was.
The drama guys then enquired about his China visit to which he said it went pretty well. One thing that they said was evident was the amount of pride in his tone whenever he spoke about Gujarat - be it the Akshardham temple or the Biogas plants or the Metro (or BRTS, not sure).
One of them then quipped "How nice it would be if India had 28 Namo's", to which our man simply smiled (who's going to be the first one to comment "28 Namos? Yeah right, and commit mass murders & slaughtering of Muslims all over the country", come on guys).
When one of them told Namo that they had initially tried to get permission to meet him via Cho in Chennai, who had said he wasnt sure when Namo would return from China, Modi said "Aah, Cho saab...woh toh mere Guruji hain."
Inevitably, the question about Prime Minstership came up, and our man genially looked up and pointed both hands upwards. :-)
After 27 minutes, NaMo automatically got up and asked the folks assembled there if they wanted to take a photo, and after the customary photograph, bid them adieu.
Amma's friend is a part of popular news-reader of yesteryear, Varadarajan's drama troupe, which had gone to Gujarat for performing there. One (or more) of the members seem(s) to have been a Modi-fan and expressed interest in meeting the man. Somehow, someone seems to have got hold of the Chief Minister's Secretariat's office, just to give it a shot. When the person at the other end said he'd get back in 15 minutes, our folks got skeptical and thought it was as good as gone. When they were consoling each other with "Hey, at least we tried"s, about 10 minutes later, they got a call saying the CM would meet them for half an hour the same day at 12 Noon. This was the day or a day after he had returned from China.
Our folks, whose excitement knew no bounds, immediately bounded off to the CM's home at about 11:30 AM and were escorted to a room. Just as the clock struck 12, in walked Narendra Modi, with a cordial "Namaste" to all. He then proceeded to ask each person individually to introduce himself/herself and asked what their play was about. Then asked them if they had been to the newly renovated Akshardham temple. And casually, rattled out that there were about 5 lakh Tamilians in Surat, while they constituted the largest population (about 1 lakh) in Maninagar, his home constituency, where their Drama was staged. Our folks were quite amazed at how the man (cliché alert) had facts at his fingertips.
Then Modi saab spoke about the Biogas plants that were in operation in Gujarat and mischievously asked them if they needed some, seeing how power-deficient TN was.
The drama guys then enquired about his China visit to which he said it went pretty well. One thing that they said was evident was the amount of pride in his tone whenever he spoke about Gujarat - be it the Akshardham temple or the Biogas plants or the Metro (or BRTS, not sure).
One of them then quipped "How nice it would be if India had 28 Namo's", to which our man simply smiled (who's going to be the first one to comment "28 Namos? Yeah right, and commit mass murders & slaughtering of Muslims all over the country", come on guys).
When one of them told Namo that they had initially tried to get permission to meet him via Cho in Chennai, who had said he wasnt sure when Namo would return from China, Modi said "Aah, Cho saab...woh toh mere Guruji hain."
Inevitably, the question about Prime Minstership came up, and our man genially looked up and pointed both hands upwards. :-)
After 27 minutes, NaMo automatically got up and asked the folks assembled there if they wanted to take a photo, and after the customary photograph, bid them adieu.
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| Picture Courtesy: Dinamani |
