Ahmadabad, NFAPost: As part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 70th birthday celebration, HarperCollins India translated Modi’s book Letters To Mother, originally written in Gujarati and translated by Bhawana Somaaya.
The book covers the tumultous journey of Narendra Modi and the influence made by his mother. Modi makes it clear that he is not a writer but undeatands the emotions in life in the book.
‘I am not a professional writer . . . but I do understand emotions – and I write because I feel strongly.’ – Narendra Modi writes in the boo.
Harper Collins published the book is now out in both Hardback and E-book editions.
‘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.’ – Narendra 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,” Bhawana Somaaya, Translator
Lingering memories
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.
Life of Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi was born in Vadnagar, a small town in north Gujarat, on 17 September 1950. At an early age he went to the Himalayas to search for the meaning of life. Deciding that his inner calling was not to renounce the world but to contribute to the well-being of his fellow humans, he returned home and then joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
He was included in the Gujarat cadre of the Bharatiya Janata Party in 1988. On 7 October 2002, he took oath as the chief minister of Gujarat and continued in the post till 2014. He became prime minister of India on 26 May 2014 and was elected to a second term in May 2019.
Bhawana Somaaya 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.
HarperCollins India
HarperCollins India is a subsidiary of HarperCollins Publishers. HarperCollins India publishes some of the finest writers from the Indian subcontinent and around the world, publishing approximately 200 new books every year, with a print and digital catalogue of more than 2000 titles across 10 imprints.
HarperCollins India authors have won almost every major literary award including the Man Booker Prize, the DSC Prize, the New India Foundation Award, the Atta Galatta Prize, the Shakti Bhatt Prize, the Publishing Next Award, the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Crossword Book Award and the JCB Prize.
HarperCollins India also represents some of the finest publishers in the world including Oneworld, Bonnier Zaffre, Usborne, Dover and Lonely Planet. HarperCollins India is also the only publisher to have been awarded the Publisher of the Year Award three times: at Publishing Next in 2015, and at Tata Literature Live! in 2016 and 2018.
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