Kolkata, Sep 17 (UNI) "I am not a professional writer . . . but I do understand emotions – and I write because I feel strongly," that's how Prime Minister Narendra Modi expresses himself in his book LETTERS TO MOTHER.
The book has been translated from Gujarati by BHAWANA SOMAAYA.
" I am not a writer, most of us are not; but everybody seeks expression, and when the urge to unload becomes overpowering there is no option but to take pen and paper, not necessarily to write but to introspect and unravel what is happening within the heart and the head and why," says Mr Modi.
" In my opinion Shri Narendra Modi’s strength as a writer is his emotional quotient. There is a raw intensity, a simmering restlessness which he does not disguise and that is his attraction," opines Bhawana Somaaya, Translator.
"As a young man, Narendra Modi had got into the habit of writing a letter to the Mother Goddess, whom he addressed as Jagat janani, every night before going to bed. The topics were varied: there were seething sorrows, fleeting joys, lingering memories. In Modi’s writings there was the enthusiasm of a youngster and the passion to usher in change."
"But every few months, Modi would tear up the pages and consign them to a bonfire. The pages of one diary, dating back to 1986, survived, however."
These are now available in English for the very first time as Letters to Mother, in a powerful translation by Bhawana Somaaya, who has been a film critic for almost forty years and has contributed columns to various publications.
She has authored several books on cinema. She was conferred the Padma Shri in 2017.
"Letters to Mother" is her seventeenth book.
Meanwhile, birthday wishes have poured in from all corners of the country for Mr Modi, who turned 70 today.
UNI SJC KK