Will Miss Your Smiling Face, Baapji: Shah Rukh Remembers Vajpayee

Also, watch SRK enact one of Vajpayee’s poems, “Kya khoya, Kya Paya” in a 2002 video.

In a heartfelt post, Shah Rukh Khan remembers his childhood days spent with former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Reminiscing his time spent with former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan wrote in a tweet, “Today the country has lost a Father Figure and a great leader. Personally I have lost a part of my childhood and growing up memories of learning smiling and of course poetry (sic).”

After suffering from prolonged illness, the former prime minister breathed his last on the evening of 16 August in New Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

In his final tribute to the “poet prime minister”, SRK remembered how his father would take him for every speech of Vajpayee when he was growing up in Delhi. He also revisits the time he spent with Vajpayee discussing poetry, films, politics and their “ailing knees”.

I consider myself the luckiest to have had his influence on my life during my formative years. May his soul rest in peace. My deepest condolences to his family and friends. Will miss your smiling face, Baapji.

Shah Rukh Khan

Watch: SRK Performs to a Vajpayee Poem in a 2002 Video

SRK also talks about a 16-year-old video where he had enacted one of Vajpayee’s revered poems, “Kya khoya, Kya Paya”on screen.

In the 2002 video shot by filmmaker Yash Chopra, a pensive Khan can be seen lip-syncing to Vajpayee’s words. To add to its beauty, late ghazal singer Jagjit Singh rendered his soulful voice to the poem.

The video also features a thoughtful introduction penned by Javed Akhtar and narrated beautifully by Amitabh Bachchan in his rich baritone.

Vajpayee was not only a great politician and an evocative orator, he had also earned fame as a prolific poet with compositions like ‘Kaidi Kaviraj Ki Kundalian' and 'Amar Aag Hai’ to his credit.

He had once famously said:

One day you may become an ex-prime minister, but you will never become an ex-poet.

Vajpayee had been ailing for long and was admitted to AIIMS on 11 June, after being diagnosed with kidney tract infection, urinary tract infection, low urine output and chest congestion.