In the winter of 1988, a critically ailing A B Vajpayee was admitted to a New York hospital. From the hospital bed, he wrote a letter and a poem to the editor of Dharmyug, a famous Hindi magazine in its time.

‘Kavya ki kasauti par mera prayas bhale hi khara na utre, kintu yeh meri zindagi ka dastavez hai,’ wrote Vajpayee, roughly translated into English as “My effort may not stand up to the benchmark of poetry but it is my life’s document.”

The poem, where he wrote of his face-off with death, was published as ‘Zindagi Ka Dastavez’ in the magazine’s December 8 issue. Cryptically and philosophically, he wrote, ‘Maut ki umra kya / Do pal ki bhi nahin’ (What’s the lifespan of death/Not even a few moments).

Vajpayee penned hundreds of poems, compiled in collections such as ‘Meri Ekyavan Kavitayein’ (My 51 poems) and ‘Na Dainyam Na Palayanam’ (Neither Self-Pity Nor Escape). And they were translated into various languages, including Bulgarian. One of his poems, ‘Kya Khoya Kya Paaya’ was set to tune by ghazal singer Jagjit Singh . Shah Rukh Khan starred in the music video. In one his works of prose, ‘Atmakathya’ (My Story), he wrote he inherited the craft from his father, who was a well-known poet of Gwalior riyasat. Vajpayee was inspired by Tulsidas’s ‘Ramcharitmanas’, Jaishanker Prasad’s ‘Kamayani’, Suryakant Tripathi Nirala’s ‘Ram Ki Shakti Puja’ and Mahadevi Verma’s ‘Geet’.

Some of Vajpayee poems allude to Hindu mythology and history. One of them, ‘Parichay’ (Introduction), begins with the line: ‘Hindu, tan-man, Hindu jeevan, rag rag Hindu mera parichay’ (Body and soul Hindu, Hindu life, Hindu in my every vein, Hindu my introduction).

Along with themes of valour and nationalism, his works also touched upon existential themes and oppression, particularly by the state during the Emergency. Vajpayee accepted that balancing poetry and politics wasn’t easy and credited jail visits with keeping the poet in him alive. Some of his light-hearted but politically-aware verse were written in jail during Emergency, where he describes himself as ‘Qaidi Kavirai’ (Prisoner-poet).

Self-introspection found its way into his poetry. ‘Zindagi Ka Dastavez’, later published as ‘Maut Se Thhan Gayee’ (Face-Off With Death) is one such: ‘Tu dabe paon, chori-chhipe na aa/Saamne vaar kar, phir mujhe aazma. (Don’t come tiptoeing playing hide and seek/Attack me upfront, then test me). In the end, though, death tiptoed in quietly and slowly for Vajpayee.

