Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke down while answering questions at a Town Hall event in Facebook campus in San Jose when he talked about the sacrifices of his mother.
65-year-old Modi displayed his rare emotional side when he was asked by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to tell the audience something about his parents.
“We have many things in common. Family is very important to us. Both my parents are here. I understand your mother is very important in your life,” Zuckerberg told the prime minister.
Modi was moved to tears while talking about the hardships his mother, Heeraben Modi, 95, had to undergo while raising him.
“When we were small, to sustain us she cleaned dishes, filled water, did laborious work at the neighbouring houses. You can imagine a mother, in order to raise her kids, underwent so much hardship,” Modi spoke as he tried to control his tears, amid a hushed silence at the event.
After a pause, he continued, “It’s not just the case with Narendra Modi, many mothers in India sacrifice their entire lives for their children.”
“There are so many parents who have sacrificed their own lives to fulfil the dreams and aspirations of their children,” he said.
“A mother will never want you to become something, she will think about how you will achieve that”.
“I’ve my mother, who is over 90 years. Even today she does all her works on her own. She isn’t educated but because of television she is updated with the news, what is happening in the world otherwise she didn’t know.”
Modi congratulated Zuckerberg’s parents, saying their son has changed the world, as he asked them to stand up for everyone to see.
“My parents have played a very big role in my life, I come from a very poor family... you probably know that I used to sell tea at the railway station,” he said.
“No one can imagine that such a big democracy of this world has made a tea seller its leader. And therefore firstly I want to thank those 1.25 crore Indians who made such an ordinary person like me their own.”
