24 Nov 2007
VADNAGAR: You can nickname Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as the 'crocodile man', a la Steve Irwin from Down Under. No, not for his propensity to chew off his opponents.
This story goes back to his childhood when the young Modi was an adventurous boy. He used to find crocodile babies while swimming with his friends in the Sharmistha lake in his hometown of Vadnagar. Once, he even caught one and brought the wriggly reptile home.
At that time, when Modi had not even entered his teens, there were apparently over 40 crocodiles in the lake. "We were a group 25 boys who used to regularly go swimming in the lake. Once Narendrabhai caught hold of a baby crocodile and brought him home," recalls Kanaiyalal Bhavsar, who was part of the gang.
Modi's mortified mother Hiraben had to emotionally blackmail him to put the baby crocodile back into the lake. She told him just like he would be miserable if he were to be separated from his mother, the crocodile would be missing its mom too. "After this emotional appeal, Modi reluctantly agreed to put the little crocodile back into the lake," reminisced Bhavsar.
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VADNAGAR: You can nickname Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as the 'crocodile man', a la Steve Irwin from Down Under. No, not for his propensity to chew off his opponents.
This story goes back to his childhood when the young Modi was an adventurous boy. He used to find crocodile babies while swimming with his friends in the Sharmistha lake in his hometown of Vadnagar. Once, he even caught one and brought the wriggly reptile home.
At that time, when Modi had not even entered his teens, there were apparently over 40 crocodiles in the lake. "We were a group 25 boys who used to regularly go swimming in the lake. Once Narendrabhai caught hold of a baby crocodile and brought him home," recalls Kanaiyalal Bhavsar, who was part of the gang.
Modi's mortified mother Hiraben had to emotionally blackmail him to put the baby crocodile back into the lake. She told him just like he would be miserable if he were to be separated from his mother, the crocodile would be missing its mom too. "After this emotional appeal, Modi reluctantly agreed to put the little crocodile back into the lake," reminisced Bhavsar.
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