From a naughty kid to witty PM, Gwalior shaped journey of Atal

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh was a witness to Atal Behari Vajpayee’s epic journey from a naughty child to the witty Prime Minister.

As the nation bade tearful farewell to India’s most loved Prime Minister on Friday, his kin, childhood friends and acquaintances recounted their encounters with the tall leader providing glimpses of his journey from a mischievous kid to a vivacious Prime Minister.

“I faintly recollect a sweet incident. He was reprimanded by his mother when he was two-three years old. His grandfather who was reading Ramayan then had rushed to his room to find that he was crying. When he wanted to know the reason for his crying, toddler Vajapyee had then said he was rebuked and warned not to cry. He argued that he has every right to cry as his mother has every right to reprimand him. He had found support from his grandfather then,” S. Sahay, a childhood friend of Atal from Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh recollected.

Born on December 25, 1924 in Scinde Ki Chawni in Gwalior city, Vajpayee had his primary school education in Sheopur in MP and later got admission in class five in Anglo-Vernacular Middle (ABM) school in Badnagar in Ujjain in 1934.

He had given his first speech of his life in the school that hinted his lurking oratory skill, his school companion Sahare revealed.

Later, he shifted to Gwalior where he did his higher study.