Modi walks in the wild with Bear Grylls

Agencies
August 13, 2019

New Delhi, Aug 13: Walking through the wild and taking a ride on a cold river in a makeshift boat were some of the things that Prime Minister Narendra Modi put up with as he teamed up with survivalist Bear Grylls to promote a cause close to his heart-protecting nature.

On Discovery channel's, "Man Vs Wild with Bear Grylls and Prime Minister Modi", he braved the rain and cold in the jungles of Jim Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand, and as the host put it, the PM was a "great sport".

"You are the most important man in India and my job is to keep you alive," Grylls joked.

During the conversation, Modi said fulfilling people's dreams gave him happiness and his focus is on development. "My position never goes to my head," he said, in reply to a question.

Grylls, who has had celebrity guests, including former American President Barack Obama, on his show earlier asked Modi about his childhood, dreams as the prime minister, whether he feared anything in life and if he ever felt nervous before a political rally.

Modi said he never had a good answer about “nervousness” as it was not a part of his temperament.

"My problem is that I have never experienced such fears. I am unable to explain it to people what nervousness is and how to deal with it because my in-built temperament is very positive. I see positivity in everything. And because of that reason, I am never disappointed."

Grylls said this was a strong message for the young.

“If I have to tell anything to the young generation, then I will say we should not think of our life in pieces. If we think of our life as a whole then there will be ups and downs. If you are going down, don't think about it because the way up starts from there,” he said.

When they came to the river during the five-mile walk, Grylls made Modi sit in a makeshift boat while he himself pushed it along, half submerged in water

At the end of the ride, they shared a hot drink laced with curry leaves.

"You must be the first prime minster ever in history to cross a river on a coracle like this,” the host quipped.

But Grylls, known for his death-defying feats and an irreverent style, spared the prime minister of what some of his guests go through.

Modi’s talked about living with love for nature and not exploiting it for one’s own ends but leaving it for the future generations.

He said India’s message to the world is Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, or the whole world is one family.

The show attracted some controversy months before its broadcast on Monday night. The Congress alleged the prime minister was busy shooting the show the day the Pulwama terror attack took place in Kashmir.

When Grylls asked whether he had ever dreamt of becoming prime minister, Modi said his focus has always been the development of the nation.

"I was the chief minister of a state first. I worked as a chief minister for 13 years, which was a new journey for me. Then my country decided I needed to do this job. So I have been doing this for the last five years.

"But the focus has been always been on one thing and that is development. And I am satisfied with that job. Today, if I consider this time as a vacation, then I must say I am taking a vacation for the first time in 18 years," Modi said.

On becoming the country's prime minister, Grylls asked whether he ever pinched himself.

"It never occurs to me who I am. I am above all this. When I was a chief minister and even now as the prime minister, I only think of my work, my responsibilities. My position never goes to my head," he added.

Recalling his childhood years, Modi said though there was poverty, his family was always connected with nature.

So much so that his father, despite there being no money, would buy 20-30 postcards and send it to relatives to inform them about the first rains in their village, he said.

At one point, Grylls, who made a makeshift spear, warned him about tigers in the area that they were walking through. Modi said, "God takes care of everything".

He said his beliefs did not allow him to kill anyone but he would hold the spear for the host.

"You should never be afraid of nature because when we think that we are in conflict with nature is when the problem starts," he said.

Asked whether he was a good student, the prime minister laughed and said, "I can't say that I was a good student."

He said that despite poverty, he liked to keep a neat appearance at school, ironing his uniform with coal embers in a copper bowl.

Modi said he left home when he was in his teens and spent his time in the Himalayas.

"I wanted to make a decision about my life. But before that I wanted to understand the world. I wanted to see the spiritual world. For that, I went to the Himalayas. I love nature. I met people in the Himalayas, stayed with them. It was a wonderful experience and I spent a long time there."

Prompted by Grylls, Modi talked about the time he sold tea at a railway station as a child, and when he brought home a baby crocodile from the pond where he had gone to bathe.

“My mother said to me this is wrong. You cannot do this. You should not do this, put it back. I went and put it back," the prime minister said.

Comments

H
 - 
Wednesday, 14 Aug 2019

Someone please tell him his protocol... There is something called maturity 

 

All stunts for for what.... For whom? 

 

 

 

 

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News Network
May 18,2020

As many as employees of Zee News have tested positive for the coronavirus, Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary said on Monday. Most of them are asymptomatic, he said, tweeting an official statement from Zee News about the situation.

The organisation said that on May 15, one of its employees tested positive for the coronavirus. Following this, the company started testing employees who may have come in contact with the employee. Twenty-seven more were found to be infected.

“Fortunately most of them are asymptomatic and are not complaining of any discomfort,” Zee News said. “We believe this is because of early diagnosis and proactive intervention.”

The news network said all guidelines and protocols have been followed, and its office, newsroom and studios have been sealed for sanitisation. The Zee News team has been shifted to an alternative facility.

“At the moment, Zee Media Corporation has 2,500 employees, by far the largest in the private sector,” the company said. “We are committed to the safety of each one of them.”

Chaudhary also claimed that “those who are infected had the option of sitting at home and sharing memes”. “They came to work because they are committed professionals.”

Following this, some social media users claimed that Zee News employees found infected with Covid-19 were still at work. In response, Chaudhary alleged that a malicious campaign was being conducted to distort his statement. He said no infected employee had come to work, and all the contacts of the employee who tested positive on May 15 had been tested and quarantined.

Over the past two months, journalists from several media organisations have tested positive for the coronavirus. On April 21, 26 employees of a Tamil news channel based in Chennai tested positive for the coronavirus. The previous day, over 50 journalists from Mumbai were found infected, after samples of over 170 journalists were tested.

On May 7, a newspaper journalist died of the coronavirus in Agra. Some states, such as Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Delhi, have tested journalists for Covid-19.

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News Network
May 5,2020

New Delhi, May 5: India registered the biggest jump in numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths, with 3,900 new cases and 195 deaths being reported in the last 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Tuesday.

"3,900 COVID-19 cases and 195 deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours, the largest spike till now in both," according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in India reached 46,433, including 1,568 deaths, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Tuesday.

According to the latest update by the MoHFW, 12,727 patients in the country have been cured and discharged, or have migrated, as of today morning. At present, there are 32,138 active cases in the country.

Maharashtra with 14,541 cases is the worst-affected state by the disease, while Gujarat with 5,804 cases is second on the list.

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News Network
February 4,2020

New Delhi, Feb 4: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday accused Arvind Kejriwal of having a "partnership" with Pakistan and appealed to the people in Delhi to not vote for the AAP chief as it will make Pakistan happy.

Ramping up his attack on the Shaheen Bagh protest, Adityanath said that the protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is merely an excuse for people to vent their anger against the scrapping of Article 370.

"You must have seen their partnership on 370. Arvind Kejriwal used to speak in the same voice as Imran Khan on Article 370. You must have heard it.

"Now when elections are taking place in Delhi, who is speaking in favour of Arvind Kejriwal? It is the ministers of Pakistan. They are aware that Kejriwal is feeding 'biryani to protesters at Shaheen Bagh'," he said, referring to Pakistan minister Fawad Chaudhry's tweet asking Indians to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Adityanath addressed three rallies on Monday in the national capital ahead of assembly elections.

"Will Pakistan decide who Indians should vote for. If voting for Kejriwal will make Pakistan happy, should it be done," he asked at a rally in Mehrauli.

Adityanath said his Delhi counterpart Kejriwal has become a "toy in the hands of anti-social and anti-India elements".

Addressing a rally in Vikaspuri in west Delhi, he said that Kejriwal is not bothered about key issues such as providing clean drinking water but is concerned about Shaheen Bagh, the anti-citizenship amendment act protest site.

At another rally in Uttam Nagar in west Delhi, Adityanath said Kejriwal has played with the emotions of the people of Delhi for the last five years.

"He obstructed the development of Delhi. And knowingly and unknowingly, he became a toy in the hands of anti-social and anti-India elements," Adityanath said.

The protest at Shaheen Bagh, he said, has disrupted traffic across the capital.

"A guest with an appointment to meet him at 9.30 am could only reach at 11. He told me he had left as early as 7 am but got stuck because of the traffic in Shaheen Bagh," he said.

The Uttar Pradesh chief minister also slammed Kejriwal for "sympathising" with elements who he said gave anti-India slogans in Jawaharlal Nehru University.

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