Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ji : Happy Birthday

Yesterday was Christmas, I visited my Engineering friend Mohit to his hotel. He is in Bangalore for 2-3 months on official visit. We went to MG Road area, roamed around for sometime. Garuda Mall had a theme where they had placed the replicas of some world's famous monuments like Great wall of China, Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower, etc. Is was very crowded, people clicking photos.

Yesterday 25th December was the 86th birthday of India's former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He used to contest the elections from my Hometown Lucknow. Never lost that seat. He is undoubtedly the greatest and best leader of the country that I have seen in my life. He has the personality where opposition also respects him. Coming from a right wing party (and so called communal) he headed the government with the support more than 17 regional parties with different ideologies, that was incredible. He is the first and only non-Congress prime minister to complete his term in the office.

He is a very good orator with amazing ability to deliver speeches. I had a chance to listen him directly, when as a PM he came to Lucknow to address a poll campaign. I still remember that day. Now a days our leaders like Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi, etc just read the speeches written by someone else. I feel a leader who is leading a country should not need a pre-written document to talk to its own people.

I believe he is the best candidate presently to receive India's highest civilian honor Bharat Ratna for his contributions to public life. But, in India where Rajiv Gandhi got this award just because of his 'Gandhi' surname, other deserving leaders has to wait.

Apart from a great leader he is also a poet and written some very good poems. I read his book "मेरी इक्यावन कवितायेँ" i.e. "My 51 poems" and one cannot stop appreciating those.
Some of my favorite lines from poems:

"सिर्फ ऊंचाई ही काफी नहीं होती, उसके साथ विस्तार भी होना चाहिए"
"अपनों को गले ना लगा सकूँ प्रभु इतनी ऊंचाई मत देना"
"आओ फिर से दिया जलाएं"

Today when he is not active in politics due to health reasons, India definitely misses a leader of his caliber. I wish him a very happy and healthy Birthday !!!

Cheers,
Hari.