Atal Bihari Vajpayee was born on 25th December 1924 to Krishna Devi, his mother and father Krishna Bihari Vajpayee Gwalior, who was a school teacher. He attended Saraswati Shishu Mandir School in Gwalior and later Victoria College from where he graduated with distinction in Sanskrit, Hindi, and English. He did his MA in Political Science with a first-class degree.
Vajpayee was closely related to Jana Sangh under leader S.P. Mookerjee in his initial political career. In 1957 he was elected to Lok Sabha for the first time and was recognized as a brilliant house orator. He happens to be the only MP who was elected from four different states – Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi. After being jailed for a short span of time during the 1975-77 Emergency, he became minister of external affairs after the election was held following the emergency in ’77. He founded the Bhartiya Janata Party in 1980 and was deeply praised for protecting the Sikh community during 1984 riots which took place after the assassination of Indira Gandhi.He served as a Prime Minister thrice – a term of 13 days in 1996, 11 months in 1998-99, and for a full term from 1999 to 2004.
Atal was the first person to deliver a speech in Hindi at the UN General Assembly, which according to him was the most unforgettable moment of his life. He loved poetry and has published books of poems. He was an editor of several magazines as well. He was a foodie and had a great taste for fried foods and Bengali sweets.
In spite of being such a great leader, he was very humble in his personal life. Atal remained a bachelor and had two foster daughters, US-based doctor Nandita and Namita.
Vajpayee was awarded Padma Vibhushan in 1992 and Bharat Ratna in 2015. He was also awarded as the best parliamentarian in 1994 and an honorary DLitt from the Kanpur University in 1993.
