(Image source from: npr.org)

Obama shares that he spent his childhood listening to the Hindu epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. He always have a special place for India, though he had never visited to India before Presidential visit in 2010.

Former US President Barack Obama listened to Ramayana and Mahabharata during his early years in Indonesia. He penned down about India in his latest book “A promised Land”.

He also wrote “India always held a special place in my imagination”.

Obama said,"Maybe it was its (India's) sheer size, with one-sixth of the world's population, an estimated two thousand distinct ethnic groups, and more than seven hundred languages spoken," Obama writes on his fascination of India in his latest book ''A Promised Land''.

"Maybe it was because I'd spent a part of my childhood in Indonesia listening to the epic Hindu tales of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, or because of my interest in Eastern religions, or because of a group of Pakistani and Indian college friends who'd taught me to cook dal and keema and turned me on to Bollywood movies," Obama writes.

Latest book by Obama recounts the journey from his 2008 election campaign to the end of his first term of mission of raiding Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden.

The book “promising land” is one of the two volumes which is launched globally on Tuesday.

By Ramya C