Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday turned emotional while talking about his mother during the question and answer session at the Facebook headquarters in California and narrated how she had gone through trials and hardships to raise him.
“My father is no more and I have my mother who is over 90 years old but still does everything herself. Even though she is illiterate, she keeps abreast of the news through television," Modi said.
When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg asked Modi to tell some experiences from his life about his mother, the latter broke down while remembering how she used to do labour and hard chores to bring him up.
“When we were young, what my mother did for a living and for our family to survive was to go to our neighbour's house and clean utensils. You can imagine what a mother had to do and what she must have gone thorough to raise her kids. This is not just the case of Narendra Modi, there are lakhs of mothers who have sacrificed their entire lives for their children. And for that, I would like to thank and praise all mothers everywhere," Modi said.
He also commended Zuckerberg's parents, who were present at the session, for giving birth and raising such a person who had 'digitally united the world'.
Speaking about his own family, Modi said he came from humble beginnings and that he used to sell tea at a railway station.
"No one can imagine that a tea seller became the leader of the world's biggest democracy and I would like to salute the citizens of India, who chose a commoner like me," he added.
The prime minister received a standing ovation after he spoke about his mother by the crowd.
Image: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on stage during a town hall at Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, California. Photograph: Stephen Lam