Vajpayee’s 88-Year-Old Friend Becomes Nostalgic, Recalls Memories

Vajpayee’s old friend Ghanshyam Das Beriwala goes down memory lane revisiting his sweet memories with the leader.

Ghanshyam Das Beriwala and Atal Bihari Vajpayee at his house eating phuchka

(Photo: Image altered by The Quint)

Video Editor: Vivek Gupta

Video Producer: Hera Khan

The television set at the Beriwala mansion in central Kolkata has not been switched off for a second ever since the news of the demise of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee poured in.

In this hour of grief, 88 year old Ghanshyam Das Beriwala considers himself lucky to have shared a special rapport with the person who remained affable even while sitting at the pinnacle of power.

Beriwal House: A Place for RSS, BJP Meetings

The octogenarian who has been a life-long RSS member fondly recollects his first meeting with Vajpayee in Delhi way back in 1952.

But who knew that a few seconds of meet would soon turn into a life-long bond between them. According to Ghanshyam, the Beriwala house served as an accommodation for almost all the leaders of the RSS and the BJP.

“I can hardly recollect any leader who has not stayed in our house during his visit to the city. They preferred our house because it was located in central part of the city and opposite to Mahajati Sadan,” he said while showing the photo album of senior BJP leaders like Lal Krishna Advani, Pramod Mahajan, Sushma Swaraj, Murli Manohar Joshi and Shatrungan Sinha apart from Vajpayee who stayed in the five-storey mansion built in 1925.

What Vajpayee Told Ghanshyam About His Political Strategy

Even the advanced age has failed to deter Ghanshyam to take a trip down the memory lane and recollect the time that he spent with the former Prime in mid 1980s.

We were resting on this bed after lunch, when I told him that if you stand here, near Ganga Ji, and ask for votes from Muslims, they will never vote for your party...He said, ‘We will have to get the vote of all the communities. People might be following different religions but we need love and support from every person living in this country. How can we rule the country unless everyone votes for us?’

Ghanshyam Das Beriwala

'He Led a Simple & Down-To-Earth Life'

He recalls another incident when he had gone to meet the BJP patriarch in his house in Delhi when he was a foreign minister under Morarji Desai.

Ghanshyam goes on to narrate:

When he came out, he saw me and asked me to sit in his car. He then drove me to the office of his ministry. Once inside, he showed me his spacious office and remarked that it was just a waste of space as the same work could have been done from a comparatively smaller office. It showed his simplicity and down-to-earth approach which can be hardly found these days.

On Vajpayee's Love for Phuchka...And Everything Spicy

His 62-year-old son Kamal Kumar Beriwala lovingly recalls the food habits of the former prime minister, “We took care of his food as he loved spicy items. I still remember that once he returned from some work and saw a puchkawala ( Panipuri vendor) standing outside the building. He wanted to have them. We immediately summoned the vendor on our floor and he thoroughly enjoyed them. We still have that photograph of him eating the puckhas.”

His 82-year-old mother Shanti Devi says that he always referred to him as a sister, “We are deeply saddened by his demise. He was a family member for us. The loss is irreparable,” she says while turning emotional.

The Beriwala family sincerely hopes that the party and countrymen continue to walk on the path shown by the great statesman and orator.