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Updated: Feb 04, 2019 16:08 IST

For Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mother, it was enough that her son was going to live close to her after he became the chief minister of Gujarat. Heeraben Modi also had a bit of advice for her son when she met him in 2001 before he took up the top job in the western state.

“A lot of people ask me how my mother felt when I became PM, but by then the name ‘Modi’ was in the air, my photos were being printed and there was a lot of excitement all over. But I think the bigger milestone for her, was when I became CM,” Prime Minister Modi said in his fourth interaction with Humans of Bombay.

In his last interactions with the popular Facebook page, Modi has talked about his childhood, association with the RSS, his Bharatiya Janata Party’s ideological mentor, his visit to the Himalayas.

Also read: ‘I used to live in a jungle alone for 5 days every year’, says PM Modi

Modi said used to live in Delhi when his name for the post of Gujarat’s chief minister, which he held for 13 years, was announced. He went to meet his mother in Ahmedabad, where she lives with his brother, before the oath-taking ceremony as his family was celebrating his success.

“By then she had already found out that I had become the CM, but to be honest I don’t think she knew what the post was about. When I reached, the atmosphere was festive and celebrations had begun. But my mother just looked at me, hugged me and said, ‘The best thing is that you will be back in Gujarat now!’ -- such is a mother’s nature, that no matter what’s going on around her, she wants to be close to her children,” he said.

Heeraben, who brought up her children under difficult circumstances, also said something that the Prime Minister has followed all his life. For his nearly 99-year-old mother, Modi said, it was never an issue of her son holding an important post.

“… ‘Dekh bhai, I don’t understand what you do, but promise me you will never take a bribe -- don’t ever commit that sin.’ Those words really impacted me and I’ll tell you why. A woman who has lived in poverty her entire life and who has never had material comforts, during an abundant and celebratory time, asked me to not take a bribe,” he said.

“So, even after I’ve become Prime Minister, my roots remain strong and relentless. Back in the day, even if someone told my mother that I got an ordinary job somewhere, she would have distributed mithai to the entire village. So CM-VM nothing matters to her -- as long as the human in the Chair strives to be honest and absolute for the country.”