PM tells students: I never calculate how many hours I work

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday advised students to remain focused on their goals and not to judge their life through the prism of success or failure.

Interacting with school students at Education City in the Naxal-affected Dantewada district of Chhattishgarh, Modi told them that he saw 125 crore Indians as his family members and working for them never tires him.

While answering a student's question on how he dealt with stress after working for 18 hours a day, he said he never counts the number of hours he works.

"I never calculate how many hours I work because the moment one does that it is not so enjoyable. One can never get tired while working, what tires a person is not being able to work. The more one works the better it is. When you finish your homework, don't you feel happy and satisfied?

"When we live for our own people one cannot get tired. The people of India are my own. Won't I feel happy to work for them," he told them while taking their questions.

Asking them not to judge their life through the prism of success and failure, he said, "What is most important how much you learn from your failures. If you are focused on your goal and working to achieve it, these things do not matter."

On a visit to Chhattisgarh, Modi asked students to take interest in sports even if they want to be IAS officers or doctors and gave them example of tribal girls from Jharkhand who have done well in sports at the international level.

Asked what he would be if not a politician, he said he would like to be a child.

Image: Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacting with specially-abled children at Saksham Education City, Jawanga, Dantewada, in Chhattisgarh on May 9, 2015. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh is also seen. Photograph: Press Information Bureau