The visitors are well informed: they know the CM never leaves for office without meeting people at his door. Many have travelled from remote places to meet him and find solutions to their problems, some vexed, and some so simple that you wonder why they couldn’t be addressed by someone lower down in the hierarchy.Īmong those waiting are poor students, physically disabled job seekers, and some old friends seeking to reconnect. The front yard is choc-a-bloc with people.

The idea is to trail him all day, and see what a typical day in the life of the chief minister is like. We take an auto and reach his house by 8.30 am, when his day is just beginning. Other neighbours down the sylvan street, lined with bungalows, are D B Chandre Gowda, former speaker of the Assembly, and Veerappa Moily, former chief minister. His brother Mallikarjun Bommai aka Mahesh Bommai, lives next door. When he became chief minister, he turned down the more luxurious official residence he was entitled to, and preferred to stay back at the house his father S R Bommai built. He is 61, and has spent 38 years of his life there. I grew up on a diet of Vivekananda and Basavanna,” he says.Ĭandid moments with CM Bommai: 3 events and a weddingīommai lives at No 4, R T Nagar. “After coming out of Tata Motors, when I started my own enterprise, economics came in handy. He was good at organising college events, but had not imagined he would enter politics. “As a college student, I loved hanging out with friends, watching films, bunking one or two classes on Saturdays,” he says. That leads to different economic policies, activities and results,” he says.īommai is a mechanical engineer. “In India, we have a saving culture, while the West has people spending. He believes a people’s way of life shapes a country’s economy. I look at these paradoxically, I see paapa-punya in economics and profit-loss in philosophy,” he says. “In philosophy there is paapa-punya and in economics there is profit and loss. He reads on a variety of subjects, but economics and philosophy are favourites. When I am on district visits, old Rajkumar songs and old Bollywood numbers keep me company,” he says. “I love listening to Hindustani music - my favourites are Gangubai Hangal, Bhimsen Joshi and Mallikarjun Mansur. He believes good music sets the tone for the day. A sugarless cup of tea and reading seven newspapers give him a feel of the day’s buzz. “I don’t let administration or politics enter my system,” he says.īommai starts his day around 6.30 am with a few stretches and a 10-minute session of pranayama. The DH on Saturday team - two reporters and a photographer - has trailed him since morning, through multiple engagements, and we ask how he stays unruffled. “This is most comfortable for my back,” he says. Basavaraj Bommai makes himself comfortable on an ordinary chair, refusing to sit on a plush sofa.

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