Modi recalls childhood connection with Aligarh, remembers Muslim lock seller

Taking a walk down memory lane, PM Narendra Modi recalled his connection with Aligarh, saying a Muslim salesman dealing in locks made in the city used to visit his village and leave his earnings with his father for safekeeping.

Addressing a gathering after visiting an exhibition of the UP Defence Industrial Corridor in Aligarh, Modi said besides the city, Sitapur was the other place about which he had heard in his childhood.

Modi said when he was a child, around 55 to 60 years ago, a Muslim salesman dealing in locks of Aligarh used to visit his village after every three months.

''I still remember that he used to wear a black jacket,'' he said. ''He used to leave the locks in shops and again come after three months to make money. He used to go to traders in neighboring villages. He had a good friendship with my father. He used to stop for four to six days in our village and leave the money he had collected with my father.

Before leaving the village, he used to collect the money from my father and depart via a train,'' the prime minister said.

''In childhood, two cities of UP were very familiar. One was Aligarh and the other was Sitapur. If anybody from our village had an eye ailment and need to get medical treatment, everybody used to tell him to go to Sitapur,'' Modi said.

''Though I did not understand much. But, we used to hear the word Sitapur and the second one was Aligarh because of the gentleman,'' Modi said.