Vajpayee, the ‘Aadha Shayar’ & his poetry: A misfit in politics?

Many years ago, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee (93) wrote a poem: “Than gayee, maut se than gayee (battle lines have been drawn between me and death.”

Expressing his final wish in the poem, Vajpaypee wrote, “I’ve lived life to my heart’s content, now why should I be afraid of death ?” However, in the same breath he dared death not to come stealthily, urging: “attack me from the front and then put me to the test.”

The poem was later sung by singer and music director Shankar Mahadevan in a musical album Nayee Disha (1999) and can be heard here:

Nevertheless, people in literary circles always considered the former Prime Minister, who was otherwise known for his instinctive turn of phrases, humour and unusual wit, as an erratic poet. Nida Fazli once described him as “Aadha Shayar” (half poet), who used poetry to entertain voters at election rallies with poems which were high on rhetoric and bordering on slogans.

But Vajpayee was conscious of it. “The stream of poetry has disappeared in the desert of politics,” he would often confess ruefully.

While most of his political poems sound more rhetorical and lack finesse, in expressing more personal and intimate emotions, he wrote with rare sensitivity and used words like a master.

Jhuki na alkein

Jhapi na palkein

Sudhion ki baraat kho gai

Rotay rotay raat so gai

(Neither did the forelocks fall

Nor did the eyelids blip

Yet, baraat of senses strayed

The night, sobbing, went to sleep)

In some poems, such as Kadam mila kar chalna hoga, the leader in Vajpayee speaks authoritatively, encouraging everyone to come along for achieving larger collective goals.

In another poem, which was featured in Nayee Disha, and was sung by Jagjit Singh, he spoke of optimism, perseverance and resilience amidst adverse circumstances:

Bhari dupahari me andhiyara

Suraj parchayi se hara

Antar-tam ka neh nichorein

Bujhi hui baati sulgaain

Aao phir se diya jalaain !

(It’s darkness at Noon,

The sun gives in to shadows

But embers from the darkest depth

Stoke the flickers of light

And light the lamp again!)

In another poem he compares height of success in personal life with snow covered mountains where no sign of life grows and even water turns into stone, and prays:

Mujhe inti unchaai kabhi mat dena,

Gairon ko gale na laga sakoon,

(Never bless me with such a height from where I fail to embrace strangers)

Several great singers including Jagjit Singh and Lata Mangeshkar gave their voice to his poetry but only after he became the Prime Minister. Ghazal maestro Jagjit Singh belted out an album titled Samvedna (Empathy) in 2002 which had six poems sung by Jagjit Singh, punctuated by a commentary by Vajpayee. Stalwarts like Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan and Yash Chopra had collaborated on the special project.

In one of the poems featured in the album, he talks of his dilemma: Whether to call it a day or start all over again from scratch. It is widely believed that he wrote these lines after an electoral defeat.

Chaurahe par lut-ta cheer,

pyade se pit gaya wazir,

Chalon aakhri chaal ki baji chod virakti rachaun main,

raah kaun si jaaun main, raah kaun si jaaun main

(My reputation lies in tatters,

Pawns have got the better of Bishops,

Is it now right to give up or go for broke?

At a crossroads, what do I choose, where do I turn)

Lata Mangeshkar, who considered Vajpayee as a misfit in politics, has sung six selected poems written by Vajpayee in an album called Antarnaad. The melody queen once remarked that “He is a poet who accidentally became a politician.”

To those who pointed out the oxymoron in his name “Atal-Bihari”, he would give a curt reply: “I don’t see any contradiction in my name. Wherever I am required to be Atal (immovable), I act accordingly and whenever I am supposed to be a Bihari (wanderer), I become one.”

But many of his poems reflect his strange dilemma. Geet Nahin Gaata Hoon, for instance, is one such poem in which he laments loneliness amongst friends. But in another poem, he writes: Kaal ke kapaal pe likhta mitata hoon, Geet naya gaata hoon! (I write and erase on the sands of time, as I sing every time a song anew ).

As doctors at Delhi’s AIIMS declared that Atal Bihari Vajpayee is no more, one perforce remembers the following lines of a poem, which was also sung by Jagjit Singh in Samvedna, writtem by the celebrated “half-poet”:

Janam divas par hum ithlate,

Kyu na maran tyohaar manate,

antim yatra ke avsar par,

Aansu ka aashakun hota hai !

(We do celebrate every birthday,

So, why not celebrate death as well,

Why shed inauspicious tears, a bad omen,

Before a journey, even it be the last)