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The Times of India (With inputs from agencies)

Here are 15 things you should know about Atal Bihari Vajpayee:

1. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was born on December 25, 1924 in Gwalior.

2. As a teenager, Vajpayee was jailed briefly for opposing British colonial rule. He flirted with communism before choosing to support the Rashtriya Swamyam sevak Sangh (R.S.S.) and the Jan Sangh.

3. Vajpayee dropped out of law school to run an R.S.S. magazine in the early 1950s. Later, he transcended his political roots in the R.S.S. to emerge as the moderate voice of the BJP.

4. His involvement in politics began as a freedom-fighter during the Quit India Movement of 1942-1945. He started out as a communist but shed that for membership in the Rashtriya Swayam sevak Sangh (R.S.S.), an organization propounding Hindutva, or Hindu Nationalism and considered Right-Wing in Indian politics.

5. Vajpayee became a close follower and aide to Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS), BJP's predecessor.

6. Vajpayee was at Mookerjee's side when he went on a fast-unto-death in Kashmir in 1953, to protest against the system of carrying a permit for entering the state and the "inferior" treatment of Indian citizens visiting Kashmir, as also the special treatment accorded to Kashmir because it had a Muslim majority. Mookerjee's fast and protest ended the identity card requirement, and hastened the integration of Kashmir into the Indian Union. But Mookherjee died after weeks of weakness, illness and confinement in jail. These events were a watershed moment for the young Vajpayee.

7. Taking the baton from Mookerjee, Vajpayee won his first election to Parliament in 1957.

8. Vajpayee served the Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament, for 10 terms that began in 1957 and concluded in 2009.

9. Vajpayee was the first head of government from outside the Congress party to serve a full five-year term.

10. Vajpayee first became Prime Minister in 1996 after four decades in opposition. He lasted only 13 days as prime minister for lack of numbers.

11. The lack of a stable majority ended his second stint in power from 1998 after 13 months. His government collapsed after AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa withdrew her support from the coalition.

12. Vajpayee was reelected in 1999 at the head of a more stable coalition that lasted its full term.

13. An orator par excellence, Vajpayee had earned much fame as India's external affairs minister in Prime Minister Morarji Desai government during which tenure he delivered a widely acclaimed speech to the United Nations General Assembly in Hindi.

14. Undeterred by party hawks who accused him of embarking on a misdirected visit to Pakistan in 1999, Vajpayee rode triumphantly into Lahore aboard a bus, on an initiative that was pursued by his successor Manmohan Singh.

15. A bachelor, Vajpayee is also a poet of some repute and he is often quoted by his party.

Mr Vajpayee at age 90

A peek into the life Atal Bihari Vajpayee now leads

Akshaya Mukul,TNN | Mar 26, 2014 The Times of India A better part of Vajpayee's day is spent with physiotherapists, doctors and nurses. 2014: Less than a five-minute drive from the Ashoka Road headquarters of BJP, where the old guard is losing ground to the new, Atal Bihari Vajpayee sits quietly in a wheelchair in his SPG-guarded Krishna Menon Marg bungalow watching snatches of television and reading newspaper headlines.

The master orator, who was silenced by a stroke in 2009, cannot grasp either the small print or the big picture of what's happening within the party he nurtured. The three-time Prime Minister — last between 1999 and 2004 — bid adieu to active politics almost a decade ago. Now, as Modi — whom he'd wanted removed as Gujarat chief minister after the Godhra riots of 2002 — tightens his hold over BJP, some of his close friends and followers are feeling slighted or pushed to the wall.

Unlike the good old days, no one comes calling on him with complaints about the party or to listen to his poetry. The only regular visitors are N M Ghatate, Vajpayee's friend of nearly six decades, L K Advani and B C Khanduri (the general-turned-politician who was chief minister of Uttarakhand), who come to sit by his side or ask daughter Namita about his health.

Ghatate who visits him almost every week, sometimes even twice, says, "Prime Minister Manmohan Singh makes regular inquiries about his health and never misses wishing Vajpayeeji personally on his birthday." The two, Ghatate says, have an old association. Ghatate remembers how then PM PV Narasimha Rao called Vajpayee to complain that his finance minister Manmohan Singh had taken criticism of his budget by the opposition to heart and had offered to resign.

During a career spent mostly in opposition, Vajpayee had criticized everyone, from Nehru to his daughter Indira, but never realized it could hurt someone so much. Ghatate says Vajpayee immediately called Singh and told him not to take such comments to heart as they were meant to score political points. The Rao government was saved an embarrassment, and a new friendship was forged.

Ghatate says Vajpayee is still mentally alert. "But the stroke he suffered does not let him speak." Till then, he'd kept himself busy with books and writing. Within two months of the 2004 electoral defeat, he wrote a four-page article on the successful NDA coalition experiment and how even Congress had to fall in line; he argued that coalitions were here to stay.

A better part of Vajpayee's day, Ghatate says, is spent with physiotherapists, doctors and nurses. "I go there and just watch him or talk to family members. He understands everything but cannot have a conversation," he says. Vajpayee's favourite food — Chinese and prawns — is now served only in small portions.

Advani, who was deputy PM in the last NDA government, is reported to have wistfully told some people that Vajpayee would consult him on "everything". When asked if BJP leaders still asked him for advice, he is believed to have replied, cryptically, "When they need to."

For Ghatate, who first met him in the 1950s, the sight of the silent statesman is heart-rending. Vajpayee, who had known Ghatate's father, Babasaheb Ghatate, a senior Hindu Mahasabha leader, took the young law student under his wing in Delhi and treated him like a younger brother.

Of all the things that the protracted illness has taken away, Ghatate misses Vajpayee's sense of humour the most. When Ghatate gave him the news of the death of JN Dixit, Manmohan Singh's first national security advisor, Vajpayee said, "He was a good man. His problem was he used to work hard and worry a lot about the consequences." Ghatate pointed out Vajpayee's NSA and Dixit's predecessor Brajesh Mishra was also hard working, to which Vajpayee retorted with a mischievous smile, "Yes, Brajesh too was hard working, but then I had to worry about the consequences," Ghatate recounted this to Mishra and the two had a good laugh.

Ghatate has been busy compiling Vajpayee's jokes and witticisms into a book. He has so far collected about 80; he knows there are many more out there.