Cuttack: Prime Minister Narendra Modi takes pride in referring to his past when he was a tea-seller. On Sunday's Mann Ki Baat programme on the radio, a 61-year-old Cuttack tea-seller found mention in the Prime Minister's programme.
Modi had met D. Prakash Rao, a tea-seller who teaches slum kids, during his visit to Cuttack on Saturday.
It all started when Rao received a call around 2pm on Friday. "I received a call from the PMO informing me about the Prime Minister's wish to meet me along with some children of my school during his visit to Cuttack," Rao said. Following the PMO's direction, the district administration ensured their presence at the temporary rest room behind the podium at Killa Maidan, from where the Prime Minister started his address to the rally around 5.05pm.
"Modi ji spent over 15 minutes with us. He wanted to know how I managed to be a tea seller and at the same time run a school for underprivileged children," Rao said. "Modiji also interacted with the 10 children of the school - aged between 5 and 12 - apart from five passouts from my school. He even asked one of them to sing a song... The familiar way in which he greeted a tea seller like me and his words of encouragement was unbelievable."
"It was like a dream when I sang before Modiji," said K. Renuka, 17, a pass out from Rao's school, who is now a Plus Two Arts student at Indira Gandhi Women's College.
In 2000, Rao started teaching slum children at his home near Buxi Bazar. Now, the school, named Asha O Aswasana, has 70 odd students studying till Class III. When the kids pass the Class III examinations, Rao takes the pains to register their names in government schools for the next class.
Rao, who has been selling tea for a living since he was not nine years old, funds the education of the kids.
In his radio programme, Modi said: "D. Prakash Rao from Odisha's Cuttack has been selling tea for the past 50 years. He spends 50 per cent of his income on the education of more than 70 poor children. His life is an inspiration to all."
Rao is also a regular blood donor and provides facilities to boil water and milk for attendants of patients at SCB hospital here.
"I am O positive and have donated blood 214 times and blood platelets 17 times," Rao said.
