only take as much as you can eateven today mother takes only as much food in the thali as she can eat and doesnt waste even a morsel a creature of habit she eats on time and chews her food to digest it properlymother would find happiness in other peoples joys our house may have been small but she was extremely largehearted a close friend of my father used to stay in a nearby village after his untimely death my father brought his friends son abbas to our home he stayed with us and completed his studies mother was as affectionate and caring towards abbas just like she did for all of us siblings every year on eid she used to prepare his favourite dishes on festivals it was commonplace for neighbourhood kids to come to our house and enjoy mothers special preparationswhenever a sadhu visited our neighbourhood mother would invite them to our humble home for a meal true to her selfless nature she would request the sadhus to bless us children rather than asking anything for herselfmother has always had immense confidence in me and the samskaras she imparted i recall a decadesold incident when i worked in the organisation side during that period my elder brother took mother to badrinath ji and kedarnath ji locals in kedarnath ji came to know that my mother would be visitinghowever the weather suddenly took a turn for the worse some people came downhill with blankets they kept asking elderly women whether they were narendra modis mother finally they met mother and gave her blankets and tea they made comfortable arrangements for her stay this incident made a deep impression on mother when she met me later she said it seems you are doing some good work as people recognise you today many years later whenever people ask her if she is proud that her son has become the countrys prime minister mother gives an extremely deep response she says i am as proud as you are nothing is mine i am a mere instrument in the plans of godyou might have noticed that mother never accompanies me for any government or public programme she has accompanied me on only two occasions in the past once it was at a public function in ahmedabad when she applied tilak on my forehead after i had returned from srinagar where i had hoisted the national flag at lal chowk completing the ekta yatrathat was an extremely emotional moment for mother because a few people had died in a terror attack in phagwara at the time of the ekta yatra she became extremely worriedthe second instance is when i first took oath as gujarats cm in 2001 the oathtaking ceremony held two decades ago was the last public event that mother attended with me since then she has never accompanied me to a single public eventi remember another incident when i became the cm i wanted to publicly honour all my teachers i