Phulbani (Odisha): When Tula Mausi shared the stage with PM Modi on May 11, 2024 during his electioneering in Odisha, never had she fathomed that she will be the face that the entire nation would look at – symbolising inclusivity and rightly as a thumbnail for India 2025 calendar.
Every wrinkle on the 80-year-old Tula Behera’s skin stands testimony to the years of slog she endured to beg, save and donate. Not less, but Rs 1 lakh, was certainly an amount someone like Tula would think thousand times before giving away to the same temple, where she sat all day long for years begging alms. She kept some money for her sustenance while shared the rest for the local Jagannath temple development.
Though she had donated the money in 2022, she was felicitated when PM Modi visited the place during 2024 election campaigning. She was called on to the stage and had a quick chat with the PM.
“I am happy, very happy to know that my photo with Modiji has been featured in India’s ‘Public Welfare Through Jan Bhagedari’ calendar. I remember how the PM had touched my feet and sought blessings from me. He addressed me as Maa. I waved my hands on his head and blessed him,” remembers Tula.
Expressing happiness at seeing her photo on the India calendar, she got emotional and tears welled up in her eyes. “I do not want anything, I am content with what I have got so far in life,” says she adding that her conversation with the Prime Minister was difficult for her to understand. “He was speaking in Hindi, I just understood Maa and it felt good,” she reminisces. The rest of the PM’s Hindi statement was translated for Mausi by the local BJP leader Ramesh Chandra Mohanty who had invited her to meet the PM.
“Modi asked me, what do I want, but I had nothing more to ask for. Being a beggar and living through the alms others give me, if I could be the privileged one to be invited on the stage to meet the prime minister, what more can I ask for,” she further says.
The India 2025 calendar was released on January 6 by Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. It has 12 pages and the first one features PM Modi with Tula Mausi and also Mohanty, on stage.
But nothing has changed ever since that chance meeting with the PM. Tula continues to earn her living by begging near the same temple. Of course, the only difference is, people who abhorred her as a beggar, now vie to click a selfie with her.
