DEAR ALL,
We always celebrate 2nd October as Gandhi jayanti but so many people forgetting there's one more celebration on this day of our great leader and best Ex Prime minister Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri. I know most of the people don't know that his birthday also come on the same day because in our schools, colleges we were only told about Gandhi jayanti on 2nd October, even the television channels also telecasting movies on the eve of Gandhi Jayanthi, but I have hardly witnessed any type of coverage about Lal Bahadur Shastri or his birth anniversary on any TV channels. We observed the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on 2nd October. Indeed it is highlighted that Mahatma was "one man army" who made the British Empire yield and obtained freedom for India. It is believed that Mahatma is most "read about" and "talked about" person in the contemporary world.
However, very few people know that it is the birth anniversary of Late Lal Bahadur Shastri as well; Except for those of like my father who grew up in the sixties and seventies, Lal Bahadur shashtri was a figure whom we knew little about. He was the little man with iron in his constitution, the man who succeeded Jawaharlal Nehru, honest to the core, the man who won the 1965 War with Pakistan. In a manner we should call this day as Gandhi jayanti as well as Shastri Jayanti. It is pity that the people, who remember and celebrate Gandhi Jayanthi, forget that the same day is the birth day of our former prime Minister - a humble man.
Most humbly, I would like to pay my tributes to Shastriji by recalling a few facts of his life:-
Lal Bahadur Shrivastav Shastri was the second Prime Minister of the Republic of India and a significant figure in the Indian independence movement, Who faced immense hardship and suffering in the heroic struggle for independence and who led India through the critical years after succeeding Nehru, who concerned about the common man of India and gave the slogan Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan. Lal Bahadur Shastri was the first person in India who received the Bharat Ratna award.
More than thirty years of dedicated service were behind Lal Bahadur Shastri. In the course of this period, he came to be known as a man of great integrity and competence. Humble, tolerant, with great inner strength and resoluteness, he was a man of the people who understood their language. He was also a man of vision who led the country towards progress. Lal Bahadur Shastri was deeply influenced by the political teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. "Hard work is equal to prayer," he once said, in accents profoundly reminiscent of his Master. In the direct tradition of Mahatma Gandhi, Lal Bahadur Shastri represented the best in Indian culture.
Lal Bahadur Shastri never felt desire for money, a person who was down to earth, a real son of the soil, and stands for austerity, simplicity and consensus. He was an exemplar of humility and simplicity. His grounding was from the grassroots level. He was small in stature and soft spoken. There was always a smile in his face and never praised himself. On the contrary he used to say I am an ordinary man and not a bright man. He never aspired for power or worked for it. Yet power and authority came in search of him. There was not the slightest sign of pride or authority in him. He acquired the qualities of honesty, simplicity, firmness, love of adventure, patience and skill in administration. He was a practical man too. He showed by his work that though he was tender like a flower he could be hard as diamond. He strongly believed the laws of the land should be changed because the British formed them to rule over India. He did make an attempt by constituting the administrative reforms commission and made Morarji Desai its chairman. But after he died the idea was shelved. Though his death is a mystery I learned that he died of with heart attack.
Two qualities, which the leader of any nation must have, are devotion and efficiency. Lal Bahadur had both the qualities in a large measure. He would not swerve from his aim, come what may when the people of India Were fighting for freedom he brushed aside all thought of personal happiness and plunged into the freedom struggle. His daughters death, his son's illness, poverty - none of these made him swerve from his selection path. Even when he became a minister and later, the Prime Minister he was never attracted to a life of luxury and comfort.
Lal Bahadur Shastri was a simple man with great personality He is one and only Indian PM who was from humble family. He led his life with great simplicity and honesty and was a great source of inspiration for all the countrymen. He filled the four corners of the world with the fame of India. Shastriji who represented a certain value system is more relevant today than before because a majority of us today have no value systems. He was a man concerned about the common man of India. Can these values return to this country? I don't think so.
Although shastri is not with us but his principal and simplicity always show the right way of life. We should follow such principals. Really he is my favorite great leader. His life was noble, loving and mainly in the highest sense! He is my most favorite prime minister.
My purpose of writing this mail is under the shadow of Mahatma Gandhi, L.B.Shastri has been forgotten, today even on his birthday there were no floral tributes, nor did any functions organize in his honor. This is the fate of a true Gandhian, very sad. Also, I never came across about his birth date in any readings of newspapers, magazines or any other written or visual material. While I am a kid My Amma Achan always tells about his greatness, he is a strict teetotaler and vegetarian that he was a truly dedicated and honest leader who had a conscience and never followed any thing against his conscience and they always felt that this giant of a person was never recognized for his deeds. Hence, a small tribute in my own way.
My main purpose of writing this mail is
To remind all of us about this great man, a gem of icon Lal Bahadur Shastri.
I am sending this mail because I did not want us, we the educated people, to forget a great leader like shastri is hard to find and he is rarest of the rare, who took moral responsibility for their actions. If only people like him would have been alive, 'India will shine like a Dhruva star. At present, leaders like him need for India for his honest and simplicity such a man stands of like a beacon: but very few people will follow such beacons in fact simple honesty is ridiculed today.
As we don't forget Children Day, Gandhi jayanti, and other events tell your children about this great leader. We must keep Lal Bahadur Shastri's birthday in our mind who was not less than these leaders in any manner. I appeal to all people for celebrating Gandhi jayanti as well as Shastri Jayanti on 2nd October.
Let's not forget the people who have sacrificed for the nation, the one like Lal Bahadur Sastry. Its my humble request to all my Indian people please don't forget that man who devoted his whole life only to save our country, and for the nation.
As a citizen of India I wish all the faithful readers of this mail A very Happy Gandhi Jayanthi, Lal Bahadur Shastris Jayanti and International day of Non Violence.
--
Aano bhadra krtavo yantu vishwatah.(- RIG VEDA)
"Let noble thoughts come to me from all directions"
REGARDS
Miss.Shaija Vallikatri Bhaskaran www.keralites.net 
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