Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a candid conversation with Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar, has said that the Assamese gamocha “soothes me whenever I am in pain”.
Akshay Kumar asked Modi about his lifestyle and various other topics but not politics.
The PM said that he had never spent his childhood in luxury and rose to this stature in life by dint of his hard work – “After a hard day’s work, whenever I used to be in pain, the gamocha of Assam used to work as a pain reliever for me. And it does so even now”
“Whenever there was pain in my feet, I used to tie the traditional gamocha of Assam around my feet and it used to work wonders on me,” the saffron party leader remarked.
Also Read: Modi dons ‘gamosa’ on temple visit when Assam boils over citizenship issue
Akshay Kumar casually asked the PM what he does when he has a running nose? Here came in the gamocha answer.
Modi stated, “You cannot even imagine what a tough life I have led. I could never afford a masseur or a physiotherapist. My best cure lay in Assam’s gamocha which I always carry with me. Whenever I felt acute pain in my feet, I used to tie the gamocha around my feet. In the middle of my feet I used to keep a curved stick. This way I used to massage my feet. These are the things which I used to evolve.”
PM Modi’s love for the gamocha is known. He wraps it around his neck quite often. On International Yoga Day last year, he did yoga with the Assamese gamocha wrapped around his neck. He did this in 2017 too.
Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal said, “The PM wrapped the pride and identity of the people of Assam – gamocha – around his neck on International Yoga Day and exhibited to the world the skill of Assamese weavers.”
Even in his fitness videos, Modi wraps the Assamese gamocha around his neck and has taken this identity of the Assamese people to the world stage.
In fact, a large section of people in Assam are “overwhelmed” by this gesture of Modi.
Since the gamocha gives him a “soothing effect”, this might be the reason why the firebrand leader wraps this symbol of Assamese culture around his neck quite often.
Modi praised versatile actor Akshay Kumar for asking him apolitical questions as “all my waking hours are occupied by politics”.