Read Anna Hazare's routine on a typical day of fast here

New Delhi, Aug 24: Anna Hazare, the 74 year old man is the new-age hero India needed at the moment. He has fired the imagination of the Indian middle class who has been burdened with the corruption demon for a long time now and has been termed 'the hero' who had the guts to take on the corrupt babus and the administration.

A person for whom fasting is not a novel method of protest, there is a particular regime that the Gandhian follows when fasting. Before making a public appearance at the Ramlila Grounds every day, Anna Hazare apparently locks himself in a 10x10 feet makeshift room located backstage. He writes in silence for about two hours during this time and does not appreciate being disturbed during this course.

Suresh Pathare, a close confidante of Anna who hails from his village in Ralegan-Siddhi has been quoted as saying, "Though the activist abstains from his routine yoga during fasts, writing is one thing he never compromises on." Pathare has been with Anna since the past 10 years.

His routine, when on a hunger strike begins at 6.30 am when we wakes up. He takes an hour or so to freshen up and get ready. Pathare adds that for Anna, "shaving is a must, a habit from his military days." An hour later, he gets into the writing mode. Pathare reveals on this, "(Anna writes) about little things, humanity, rights... He puts on paper a lot of internal thoughts. Even in Tihar (Jail), he used to write a lot. In jail he used to read newspapers and watch news on TV, but here he just writes."

Pathare adds, "In the village, he sometimes doesn't come out of his house for days. No one has the guts to knock on his door... If someone has to bring him food, he'll keep it outside and leave. No one can dare to disturb him."

He enters the specially erected stage for fast only at 10am and stays there till 9pm. With Anna giving an impromptu speech twice or thrice a day, the frequency is seeing a decrease after he completed his ninth continuous day of fast. A portable toilet is placed next to the makeshift room. The doctors monitor his health status closely every three hours.

At 10pm he retires to his room for the day. Pathare, who has accompanied Anna in all his 10 fasts over the course of the last decade divulged, "Anna likes to sleep at the venue when he's fasting."

The doctors monitoring his health have a 24-hour ambulance on stand-by at all times. Balram Gupta, a doctor from Medanta Medicity has been quoted as saying, " His blood pressure, heart rate, everything is fine. He's a very tolerant man."

Hazare only meets a few people during his fast especially close aides and special guests. His is also a stickler for time, Pathare reveals. He says, "If he has two back-to-back engagements and the first function stretches on a little and he gets late for the second meeting, he gets very angry."

On another characteristic of Anna Hazare, a member of India Against Corruption (IAC), Aswathi Muralitharan reveals, "He will never sign a document without going through it. He'd check it 100 times and make at least 50 changes. No one can impose anything on him." Pathare backs the claim, "He writes, rewrites, improvising again and again, till he's satisfied. He's a perfectionist."

OneIndia News