'Xi and I...': PM Modi shares Xi Jinping’s 'Vadnagar' connection

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his latest podcast with Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath, shared an interesting story about Chinese President Xi Jingping's unique connection to his village, Vadnagar, in Gujarat.

At the start of the podcast, he was talking about the first era of his early life, when he mentioned that after he became the Prime Minister for the first time in 2014, Chinese President Xi, like other global leaders, called on him to convey best wishes in 2014.

“When I became the PM in 2014, leaders from across the world made courtesy calls. Chinese President Xi also called and expressed his wish to visit India. I said I welcome your decision and he said he also invited me to visit Gujarat. He then said he wanted to visit Vadnagar, my village."

He elaborated further: "President Xi shared that he and I share a special bond. Chinese philosopher Hiuen Tsang spent the longest time in your village, Vadnagar. When he returned to China, he settled in my village. So he said that's a connection between the two of us."

On being asked if he was a "good student", the PM says he was a "normal" student. "But, I had a teacher called Virjibhai Chaudhary, he used to like me, and he went to meet my father. He said he's such a talented boy but does not concentrate. He had a lot of expectations from me. Teachers used to like me but if it involved a lot of competition, then perhaps I used to run away from it."

The PM says he used to be active in all other activities. "If there's anything new, I used to catch it instantly. That was my nature."

Talking about his childhood friends, the PM said his case is a bit different. "I left home at an early age and left everything. I lost contact with everyone. That created a big gap. So my life was also a life of an explorer."

He said, however, that when he became the chief minister, he felt he wanted to invite all his old classmates to the chief minister's (CM) house. "The psychology behind that was I didn't want anyone to misunderstand me. I am the same person who left the village years back, and there's no change in that. I wanted to live that moment. However, since there were a lot of gaps, most had grey hair, children had grown up, but I called everyone. I ate good food and talked about a lot of things. But I didn't have a lot of pleasure because I was trying to find friends, but they were seeing a chief minister. So that line didn't blur."