atal bihari vajpayee

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was born on 25 December 1924 in Gwalior to a middle class Brahmin family of Shri Krishna Bihari Vajpayee and Smt. Krishna Devi. Pandit Shyam Lal Vajpayee, grandfather of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, migrated to Gwalior from their ancestral village Bateshwar in Uttar Pradesh. His father was a school master and a poet. Atalji completed his schooling from Saraswati Shishu Mandir, Gorkhi in Gwalior. He completed his graduation in Hindi, Sanskrit and English from the Victoria College in Gwalior, now known as the Laxmi Bai College. Thereafter, he studied in DAV College, Kanpur and completed his M.A. in Political Science with a first class degree.

He is fondly called Baapji by his close relatives and friends. He remained single for his entire life and later adopted a daughter, Namita. He loves Indian music and dance. Atal Bihari Vajpayee is a nature lover and Manali in Himachal Pradesh is one of his favoured retreats.He has retired from politics due to health issues and is currently known to be suffering from dementia and diabetes. Close aides say he fails to recognize people and mostly stays at home, except for his check ups that are conducted at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

His first encounter with politics was during August 1942 at the time of the Quit India Movement. Vajpayee and his elder brother Prem faced arrest for 23 days. He joined the Bharatiya Jana Sangh when it was newly formed in 1951 and subsequently became motivated by the party leader Shri Shyama Prasad Mookerjee. He was with Shri Shyama Prasad Mookerjee when the latter observed a fast unto death in 1951 in Kashmir against the supposed inferior treatment shown towards non Kashmiri visitors. During this strike Shri Shyama Prasad Mookerjee died in prison.