KOCHI: Observing 11-day penance ahead of the consecration of Ram temple in Ayodhya, Prime Minister Narendra Modi slept on the floor and ate only fruits for dinner during his stay at the Ernakulam Government Guest House on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he only had tender coconut water before leaving for Guruvayur early in the morning.
That’s not all. While returning to Delhi, the PM took two things from Kerala that bowled him over – the Vazhakulam pineapple and tender coconuts. The sweet tender coconut water impressed the PM and his staff so much that the latter sought 20 nuts of the same taste to be taken to Delhi. The uncut tender coconuts were packed separately and sent to Kochi airport with the PM’s luggage.
“Since the PM is pure vegetarian, we had arranged a separate kitchen for him,” said guest house manager Bineeth Merry Jan.
“We brought first-quality pineapple from Vazhakulam for him. We also arranged locally-cultivated dragonfruits, guavas and papayas, besides apple, orange, watermelon and dry fruits. For dinner, we prepared boiled rice, fried basmati rice, phulka, north Indian dishes like malai kofta, rajma dal aalu and gobi. There were Kerala dishes like aviyal, olan and kalan too,” he said.
However, the PM ate only papaya and pineapple, Bineeth said.
“He liked the taste of Vazhakulam pineapple. The staff was appreciative of the broken wheat pudding (payasam) we prepared. And since the PM preferred hard mattress on his previous visit, we bought a coir mattress from Coirfed. However, he slept on a yoga mattress on the wooden floor. We gave him three additional bedsheets to put over the mat,” Bineeth said.
On Wednesday, Modi left the guest house around 6am after having only tender coconut water. The guest house staff had kept readied idli, dosa, appam, puttu, cornflakes, milk and fruit juice for breakfast. Chefs from Thrissur Government Guest House had arrived at Guruvayur and prepared breakfast for him.
On Wednesday, the Ernakulam guest house staff served lunch for the PMO staff at the Willingdon venue. A special Kerala sadya with 26 dishes was prepared for the PM and top five officials at the guest house. However, after the function at Marine Drive, the PM went straight to INS Garuda, the Naval Air Base from where he proceeded to the Kochi airport to board the special aircraft to Delhi.
