'Special Connection': PM Modi Recalls Phone Call With China's Xi Jinping In 2014

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in an interaction with Zerodha Co-Founder Nikhil Kamath, recalled a phone call he received from Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2014. During the conversation, Jinping had highlighted a "special connection" between them.

Modi said, “When I became the Prime Minister in 2014...the Chinese President called me to congratulate me and expressed his desire to visit India. He said, ‘I'd like to go to Gujarat, and I'd like to visit your village, Vadnagar'.”

PM Modi continued, “He told me that there was a special connection between our villages...Chinese philosopher Xuanzang had spent a significant amount of time in the village you come from during his visit to India, and later, when he returned to China, he stayed most of his time in the village I come from...so we have a special connection."

This was Modi's first-ever interview in the podcast format. The prime minister opened up about his childhood, and his experiences in politics, while also touching upon some fascinating and lesser-known aspects of his early life.

Speaking candidly about his childhood, Modi shared insights into his upbringing in the small village of Vadnagar in North Gujarat. He recalled how, as a young student, he learned that Xuanzang had once stayed in his village during his travels to India. This sparked his curiosity, and he even took the initiative to write a letter to the embassy, urging them to highlight this historical connection in a film that was being made about Xuanzang's journey.

When I was in school, "I learned that the Chinese philosopher Xuanzang had stayed in my village. They were making a film on him, and that's when I wrote a letter to the embassy, asking them to include my village as a significant part of his journey,” Modi recalled.

Modi also shared a valuable piece of advice he received from Rasik Bhai Dawe, a Congress leader, when he was a student. Dawe had encouraged him to preserve the history of their village by collecting stones that were engraved with anything, as "someday when someone will come to document it it will be useful".