Narendra Damodardas Modi was born on 17 September 1950 to a family of grocers in Vadnagar in Mehsana district of what was then Bombay Presidency (present-day Gujarat).
Modi helped his father sell tea at Vadnagar railway station when a child and as a teenager he ran a tea stall with his brother near a bus terminus.
Narendra Modi formally joined the RSS after the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
Narendra Modi also participated in the movement against the Emergency under Jayaprakash Narayan.
A rare picture of Narendra Modi during a vacation
A huge crowd gathers to welcome Narendra Modi's come back to Gujarat in the year 1997
My son will become the prime minister. He has won Gujarat. My chest swells with great pride. He has to do lot more. Narendra will not stop here, Hira Ba, Narendra Modi's mother said after her son retained the Maninagar constituency in Ahmedabad's outskirts on December 20, 2012.
A 1995 file photo of Narendra Modi.
Modi at the Rangotsav at Kutch, Gujarat, in 2008.
Modi became the first Indian politician to interact with netizens through live chat on Internet via Google hangout. It allows ten people to group chat at a single time. The hangout was organized on the same day when the Gujarat High Court gave its statement on the Naroda Patiya massacre. The chat was hosted by Bollywood actor Ajay Devgn.
Modi is believed to live in sync with the changing times. He has grown hi-tech not only by using social networking platforms for projecting a 'vibrant' gujarat but also using technology to interact with the masses.
In the late 2011-early 2012 Narendra Modi underwent a series of fasts as part of the Sadbhavna Mission. The mission started on 17 September 2011 in Ahmedabad with a view to strengthen the atmosphere of peace, unity and harmony in the state. He observed a total of 36 fasts in 26 districts across 8 cities including Ahmedabad.
Photos by India Today
