Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at a very young age, had acquired a habit of writing letters to Mother Goddess, who he addressed as "Jagat Janani", every night before going to bed. The topics of his writings varied from "seething sorrows, fleeting joys to lingering memories," says Harper Collins India, the publisher of Narendra Modi's forthcoming book, "Letters To Mother".
It says Modi would tear up the pages of his diary and consign them to bonfire every few months. "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," says Harper Collins India. The letters, originally written in Gujarat, have been translated by Bhawana Somaaya, a Padma Shri awardee, a film critic for almost forty years and author of numerous books.
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About the book, the prime minister says, "This not a an attempt at literary writing; the passages featured in this book are reflections of my observations and sometimes unprocessed thoughts, expressed without filter."
"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," PM Modi has been quoted as saying by the publisher.
The 112-page book releases in June 2020.
