A day in the life of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee

New Delhi: Today is the 91st birthday of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.After he relinquished office in May, 2004 as the longest serving non-Congress Prime Minister at the Centre, Atal Bihari Vajpayee has been living the life of a recluse, away from the political humdrum in the corridors of power.Vajpayee has not appeared in public for the last 8-9 years. No pictures of the former prime minister has appeared in the last 5 years except the event when he was awarded Bharat Ratna last year.The last public speech he gave was in 2007 in his then parliamentary constituency Lucknow. Since then the public has heard nothing from the great orator.A man who became Prime Minister thrice, was elected 10 times to Lok Sabha, and that too, from six different constituencies, as disparate as Gwalior, Balrampur and Lucknow, Vajpayee has been living the life of a man cut away from the outside world in the autumn of his life.6, Krishna Menon Marg, the Delhi residence where Vajpayee is staying, closely guarded by the Special Protection Group, remains deserted most of the time during the day, with no political activists congregating to see the man who infused life in a party, which claims to be the national alternative to the Congress.The last picture that was taken of Vajpayee was on December 25, 2009 on his birthday. Atalji, as he is popularly known, finds it difficult to stand and walk presently. He uses his wheelchair to move around but remains confined to his room for most part of the day.Most of the time, Vajpayee is seen lying on his bed. He has difficulty in speaking, and speaks to his relatives and household members in sign language. Says BJP leader Vijay Goel, former minister in Vajpayee's PMO: "Most of the time Atalji's words are difficult to understand".Former BJP chief Rajnath Singh says, he meets Atalji at least four times a month. Vajpayee is always accompanied by a doctor.His daily routine; Wakes up at 6 am or 6:30, Physiotherapist comes in to make him do some exercises, 8am-9 am: Atalji has his daily breakfast, occasionally goes through the newspaper headlines or watches news channels. 11 am: He has a nap, and so on - lunch in the afternoon and dinner by early evening.Recently a pipe was inserted in his windpipe in order to make him speak coherently.Vajpayee loves watching old Bollywood films and listens to old melodies of Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi.As the patriarch plods through the daily grind in the autumn of his life, the nation, in particular oldtimers, yearn to see and hear Atalji speaking, his resounding oratory, his flicking of fingers, his pregnant pauses, his acerbic remarks tinged with poetic nuances, and last, but not the least, his instant rapport with his listeners.The nation surely misses a great orator like Atalji. People belonging to all shades and hues of ideologies, often flocked to his meetings only to hear him, to see his reflexes.They may or may not agree with his views, but one thing was certain: every listener who went to his meetings used to come back with a flicker of joy, after listening to a poet-turned-politician who used Hindi and Urdu words and phrases with flourish.The people assembed at Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore in 1999 till this day remember the vintage Vajpayee, who pitched for friendship with Pakistan.The same Vajpayee later told the world, how his peace bus to Lahore landed up in Kargil.Vajpayee was the Prime Minister who indirectly rebuked Narendra Modi and asked him to abide by his 'Rajdharma' after the Gujarat communal riots.It was only Vajpayee, who could have dared to tell trident-wielding Bajrang Dal activists in Delhi in 1991, just before they left to join Advani's Ayodhya rathyatra from Somnath with this admonition: "Remember, you are Bajrangis, the followers of Hanuman, you are going to Ayodhya, and not Lanka."