Former Prime Minister A B Vajpayee touching P Chinnapillai's feet

MADURAI: “I felt shattered when some people informed me that former Prime Minister Vajpayee had passed away. I felt as if I had lost my father as he was the man who made the world look at me,’’ says P Chinnapillai , better known as the lady whose feet Vajpayee had touched in respect.

Speaking to TOI, the 66-year-old woman said that she had been following the former Prime Minister’s health condition ever since he was taken ill and admitted to hospital.

“I kept praying for him, but when I heard he had died sometime ago, I felt devastated,’’ she said adding that she would have gone to New Delhi to pay her respect if she her health had been better.

Chinnapillai, who never went to school, was instrumental in empowering over 60,000 women who were later formed into groups called Kalanjiyam with the help of the NGO Dhan Foundation. Having been selected for the Shreesakthi award given by the human resource development ministry, she received the award from then Prime Minister A B Vajpayee in 2001.

“I was not selected just like that, officials visited my village Pulliseri in Madurai thrice before I was informed that I was the recipient of the award,’’ she said.

Travelling for the first time on a journey out of Madurai by flight to Delhi had her enthralled. “It was nothing compared to the feeling I had when the Prime Minister touched my feet. I started shivering when he said Chinnapillai from Madurai, but I could not understand a word he said after that,” she said.

“A person standing nearby later told me that the Prime Minister had touched my feet because he did not see me as just a female, but a goddess for the work I had done. I felt proud,’’ she said, adding that it was the first award that she had received and that too from the hands of a great man.

Chinnapillai considered it the turning point in her life as she went on to win numerous other awards.

“Late chief minister M Karunanidhi also recognised me with an award. The very next day, actor Parthiban said it was not Aishwarya Rai but I who was the real ‘miss world’, and then I realised the importance of the work I had done,’’ she said.

