Prime Minister Narendra Modi who turns 69 today, is celebrating his birthday in his hometown Gujarat. PM Modi is the most celebrated and debated politician in the last six years. Narendra Modi enjoys a huge fanbase among the public. Hence, there is very little that people don’t already know about him. But, not many know that while growing up, he had a huge interest in writing a play and acting.
His love and passion for drama and acting has been very well documented in his biography, The Man of the Moment: Narendra Modi written by MV Kamath and Kalindi Randeri. This book was published in 2013, when he was showing the world that he can alone make BJP a numero-uno party. PM Modi has always been open about his love for the stage, which can also be seen in his book Exam Warriors.
In one of the chapters of his book Exam Warriors, Modi recalls an anecdote from his past where he mentions about rehearsing for a play in school. He said, “I had to deliver a particular dialogue which, for some reason, I was struggling with. The director of the play got impatient and said he would be unable to direct me if I kept saying the dialogue in that manner”.
However, there was one school play which depicted the strong message teenager Narendra Modi wanted to convey. He was around 14 years old when he performed a play to raise funds for his dilapidated school in Vadnagar. Modi himself wrote the play, directed it and acted in it.
The play was named Peelu Phool meaning yellow flower in Gujarati. It was based on the theme untouchability. In Narendra Modi’s play, there is a Dalit woman who is trying to save her son from an illness. She takes him to vaidya, tantric but they all refuse to treat him as they are “untouchables”.
Then somebody suggests the mother that her son would be cured if she touches a peelu phool(yellow flower) offered to gods. She runs to the temple in a final hope to save her son, but she is not allowed to enter in temple premises. The priest screams at her. But she begs for just a yellow flower which he finally agrees to give. Modi’s play ends with a strong message that everybody is equal before God and everyone has the right over things offered to him.
It is said that Narendra Modi’s play is inspired by a real incident he saw in his childhood where a priest yells out at Dalit woman for asking flower.