Collection of Modi’s emotional letters to ‘Jagat Janani’ to be released in English

A collection of letters penned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ‘Jagat Janani’, or mother goddess, is set to be released in English in the first week of June.

Translated by noted film critique Bhawana Somaaya in English, the letters, originally written in Gujarati, have been taken from Modi’s diary, dating back to 1986, claimed Harper Collins India, the publisher of the upcoming book.

According to the publisher, Modi had developed a habit of writing a letter to ‘Jagat Janani’ every night before going to bed. But “every few months, he would tear up the pages and consign them to a bonfire”.

Why? Nobody knows. However, a statement issued by the publisher reads, “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, he 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”.

HarperCollins India quoted Modi as saying, “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 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,” Modi wrote.

According to Somaaya, 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,” she was quoted as saying by the media.