The poet
His first love, poetry, lent Vajpayee's political persona an ineffable charisma. The poet's brooding aloofness almost gave the lie to his all-too-transparent love of life, his ready wit, his infectious gregariousness and his great joy in hosting grand culinary feasts for the delight of his friends and associates
There was a personality dichotomy in Atalji which, sometimes, even those who knew him very closely could not fathom. Was he, when interacting with them, wearing the headgear of a poet or the hat of a politician? The question may appear unnecessary or even facetious. But, in the case of Atalji, it was an enduring reality. And, often, what he said as a politician was at variance with what he wrote as a poet. How then was one to
