JOIN USOne of the reasons Prime Minister Narendra Modi is excited about his visit to Nepal is that it would give him the opportunity to meet the parents of a young Nepalese boy who has almost been a godson to him for more than a decade.
Modi has been a guardian to Jeet Bahadur, who was born at Lokaha in Nawalparasi district of Nepal, ever since the boy and his elder brother came to India looking for jobs.
Though Jeet found a job in Rajasthan, he did not like it much and was keen to return home. But he boarded the wrong train, which took him to Ahmedabad instead of Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, from where he would have crossed over to Nepal.
It was in Ahmedabad that Jeet first met Modi, who was yet to take over as chief minister of Gujarat. Over the next decade, Modi helped Jeet learn Gujarati, encouraged him to take interest in sports and to pursue his studies in Ahmedabad.
“I am happy that I will be able to return them (Jeet’s parents in Nepal) their son tomorrow,” Modi posted on the social networking website Twitter. Jeet is now pursuing a Bachelor of Business Administration course in Ahmedabad.
The prime minister tweeted about Jeet on Saturday—just a day before he left for Kathmandu for a two-day visit to Nepal. He said he had found Jeet when the latter was a child and helpless, as he had no idea where he would go and did not even know the language (Gujarati).
Modi took the help of a Nepalese businessman to find Jeet’s parents in Nepal in 2011. “I could trace his parents in Nepal sometime back. It was also interesting. It was possible because he had six toes in one of his legs,” tweeted the prime minister.
Jeet told TV channels that the uncommon condition of his toes helped his mother identify him, when Modi, whom he refers to as “Bade Bhaiya” (elder brother), traced his parents in Nepal.