Advani's autobiography released

On Nov 4, Vidhana Soudha played host to the Prime Minister-in-Waiting Lal Krishna Advani. The occasion was the Kannada release of his autobiographical book in English, 'My Country, My Life' (Nanna Desha, Nanna Jeevana) at the hands of Infosys Chief Mentor and Chairman, N.R. Narayana Murthy.

A galaxy of BJP leaders from Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, Cabinet Ministers, State Party President Sadanand Gowda, and MP and national general secretary Ananth Kumar shared the dais, along with Vishweshwar Bhat, Executive Managing Editor of Vijaya Karnataka who translated the book in Kannada and the Publishers, Nitin Shah and Suresh C. Shah of Sapna Book House.

Mr. Advani who has a special attachment over Bangalore, because of his association with the city since the days of Emergency, expressed his happiness over the release of his book in Kannada, at a time when it was granted classical language status.

As a special gesture he presented copies of the book to cricketer Anil Kumble, MN. Venkatachalaahiah, former Chief Justice, Kannada poet GS Shivarudrappa, actors Ambarish, Vishnuvardhan and Bharathi Vishnuvardhan, Lokayukta Santosh Hegde, Dr. Devi Shetty, of Narayana Hrudayalaya, and film maker TN Seetharam, among others.

In his address, Sri Narayana Murthy said the book reveals that the sedate Advani was a naughty child and an avid fan of film stars Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan.

In his thanksgiving speech, Advani spoke at length about what made him to put down the story of his life, and the chief influences over his six decades of public life.

At an early age, he was inspired by Deendayal Upadhyay whose life style and his column in Organiser, the RSS organ, called Political Dairy.

He recalled how he spent a major part of his youth watching his favorite films with his friend, colleague, senior leader and mentor, Atal Behari Vajpayee. They used to frequent the cinema halls in Delhi, sometimes without even knowing the name of the movie, he said. Once after his party, the Jan Sangh lost the Delhi Corporation elections, he and Atalji happened to see a movie called Phir Subah Hogi (There will be Dawn Again) and drew inspiration from it, he remarked, sending the audience to splits.

Advani recalled his school days in his home town, Karachi, and said his political career began as a worker of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). It was the RSS that shaped his ideologies and the core values in all aspects of his life, he acknowledged.