STREAMS OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Prime Minister Narendra Modi turns 70 this month with a new book. Letters to Mother is a flashback 34 years to 1986, when Modi had not established himself in the hurly-burly of mainstream politics. As an RSS pracharak, he began jotting down his innermost thoughts “when the pressures became insurmountable’’. Every night before going to bed, he would share his hopes, aspirations and fears as letters to jagat janani, or the mother goddess. Every few months, he “systematically tore up all the pages and threw them into a bonfire”. A friend’s intervention, “emphasising the importance of documentation”, ensured that Modi kept the notes. In 2014, some of them were published in Gujarati as Saakshi Bhaav. The English translation, Letters to Mother, has now been released by HarperCollins India. This is Modi’s third book. His first—A Journey, a book of poems translated into English—was published in 2014. “All of us are entitled to self-expression,” writes Modi, “and that is exactly what I have done.”

- MANDIRA NAYAR

FOREWORD BY NARENDRA MODI

This is not an attempt at literary writing; the passages featured in this book are reflections of my observations and sometimes unprocessed thoughts, expressed without filters.

A public figure is always judged by his position; irrespective of what he says or does, his persona becomes so exaggerated that it is difficult to trace the man behind the image or, let me put it this way, there comes a time when there is no desire in us to search for the individual behind the mask.

To live an ordinary life is a privilege and deep within, all of us are but ordinary mortals affected by the positive and the negative showering bestowed upon us by the universe. None of us are above vices, virtues, hope, disappointment, love, yearning, expectations or ambitions.

Like you, I am an ordinary mortal with some strengths and some weaknesses, and like everyone, I am constantly struggling to become more aware and evolved.

Sometime in the past when the pressures became insurmountable, I got into the habit of writing letters to the Mother Goddess, whom I address as Jagat janani. I shared my innermost thoughts with her every night before going to bed, and this exercise had a strangely calming effect on me. I looked forward to everyone falling asleep, so that I could retire to a quiet corner with my notebook.