School Life

He helped his father Damodardas sell tea at the Vadnagar railway station, and later ran a tea stall with his brother near a bus terminus.[17][18] He completed his schooling in Vadnagar in 1967,where a teacher described him as being an average student, but a keen debater with an interest in theatre.[17][19] An early gift for rhetoric in debates was noted by teachers and students at the time.[20] Modi also showed a preference for playing larger than life characters in theatre performances which has influenced the image he portrays of himself in politics.[21][22]At the age of eight, Modi came into contact with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and began attending its local shakhas, or training sessions. There he met Lakshmanrao Inamdar, popularly known as Vakil Saheb, who was to become Modi's political mentor. Inamdar inducted Modi as a balswayamsevak, or junior cadet in the RSS.[23] While training with the RSS, he also met Vasant Gajendragadkar and Nathalal Jaghda, Bharatiya Jana Sangh leaders who were later founding members of the BJP's Gujarat unit in 1980.[24][25][26][27]

In keeping with the traditions of the Ghanchi caste, Modi's marriage was arranged by his parents while he was still a child. He was engaged at the age of 13 to Jashodaben Chimanlal, and married when he was 18. They spent little time together, and were soon estranged when Modi decided to pursue an itinerant life.[17][28] The marriage was reportedly never consummated.[29] Modi kept the marriage secret for most of his career, only acknowledging the existence of his wife when filing his nomination for a parliamentary seat in the 2014 general elections.[30][31]

Little is known of the time he spent traveling; however, in interviews Modi has spoken of visiting various Hindu ashrams, or places of Hindu religious learning, founded by Swami Vivekananda. The first of these was the Belur Math near Kolkata. He later visited the Advaita Ashrama in Almora, and the Ramakrishna mission in Rajkot. However he was only able to stay for a short period in each ashram, as he lacked a college education, and the institutions were strictly limited to postgraduates.[32][33][34] After two years of travel, Modi returned to Vadnagar, and after a brief visit left again for Ahmedabad. Here he lived with his uncle and worked at a canteen also run by his uncle at the Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation.[35][36] In Ahmedabad, Modi renewed his acquaintance with Inamdar, who was then based at Hedgewar Bhavan, the RSS headquarters in the city.[24][25][37]After the end of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, he stopped working for his uncle and became a full–time pracharak (campaigner) of the RSS.[36][38] In 1978, Modi became asambhaag pracharak (regional organiser) for the RSS, and also earned an extramural degree in political science through a distance education course at Delhi University.[29][39] In 1983, he completed his Master of Arts degree in political science from Gujarat University.[19][40