Page 91 - Gujar Mal Modi

he announced Rs. 100 with seven days leave with pay to the worker who got

himself sterilised. In 1967, he distributed 115 radio sets to those who went for
Vasectomy operation. Thus much before the Government realised the dangers

of a population explosion and embarked upon a family planning campaign, Mr.
Modi encouraged the small family norm among his workers. He anticipated that

sooner or later the Government will have to adopt it as a national programme to
take advantage of the rapid strides made by India in the agricultural, industrial,

scientific and economic fields.

On each birthday, while Mr. Modi was at Modinagar, he used to plant a sapling as
he believed that the trees were the nation’s wealth. It is indeed his inexhaustible

interest in tree plantation that hundreds of plants are grown in the Modinagar
colonies and lawns. He advised the people of Modinagar to exercise utmost con-

trol in the felling of trees. He also made provision for replacement of old trees
felled down. As an encouragement he himself planned and planted an orchard

of mango trees at Modinagar known as ‘Sikri Bagh’ where different birds chirp
and twitter and have made it their home. In the season the ‘Bagh’ becomes a

veritable nest of singing birds.

Mr. Modi was also religious-minded like his father and fore fathers. This trait in

him deepened and developed as he prospered in business. Whenever he could
spare time, he went out on a pilgrimage to perform his religious duties as well as

to get the much-needed respite from ceaseless work. The initial impulse for pil-
grimage, however, was provided by the vision of the Mahatma which had sever-

al times come to his aid when he was faced with the various problems in his early
industrial career. He had ever since been keen to seek out that holy person. On

his first pilgrimage in 1951 he decided to go to Badrinath. About this pilgrimage
there is an interesting story. Mr. Modi had gone to Meerut to attend a tea party

where he met Dr. R. K. Caroli, the famous cardiologist. On his way back home Dr.
Caroli accompanied him. He discovered that Mr. Modi was having some difficulty

in breathing. He diagnosed that his heart valves were defective. He advised him
not to go to the hills because climbing heights would strain his heart. But Mr.

Modi was determined to go, and so his reply was that if he died at the feet of
God, he would be fortunate, but if he survived it would be proved beyond doubt

that his faith was genuine and God desired to keep him beyond harm’s reach. He

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