Word: shastri
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...conference stalled on the very issue over which the two nations had warred: Kashmir. The impasse was finally broken by Kosygin, who persuaded the two men to skirt Kashmir and try to settle other problems. It was a considerable diplomatic triumph for Moscow and a major victory for Shastri. Without retreating on Kashmir, he negotiated an agreement with Ayub that called for 1) pulling back Indian and Pakistan armies to their prewar borders, 2) re-establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries, and 3) holding more high-level meetings to discuss Indo-Pakistan misunderstandings. Shastri was ecstatic. "We shall fight...
...Journey. The strain of the talks had told on Shastri. He looked weary and fatigued after signing the agreement. That night, going to bed at midnight, he hoped for a good sleep. But scarcely an hour later he staggered into the hallway of his villa, clutching his chest. Guards summoned his doctor, who immediately injected a stimulant. A team of Russian physicians rushed to his bedside, shot adrenalin directly into the heart. But nothing helped. At 61, Shastri was dead of a heart attack, his third in six years...
...morning after his death, Premier Kosygin and President Ayub Khan shouldered Shastri's coffin and bore it to a blue-and-silver Soviet Aeroflot IL-18 airliner for the 3½-hour flight to a mourning New Delhi and reunion with Shastri's grief-stricken family. As Indian generals carried the flag-covered body into his home at 10 Janpath (People's Way), Shastri's wife Lalita threw herself on her dead husband and kissed his face. "Shastriji, you have left me alone!" she wailed...
Resting on a bed of flowers, Shastri was placed in the portico of his residence for public view. All through the night, as thousands of Indians filed past in a final tribute, Lalita stayed by her husband, frequently reaching out to stroke his face, and sometimes, overcome by weariness, resting her head for a moment on his pillow. The next day Shastri's body was lifted onto a gun carriage for the final five-mile drive through the dusty city to the Jumna, a tributary of the sacred Ganges...
Only Ashes. At the river, a high pyre had been erected. As Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Soviet Premier Kosygin and scores of other foreign dignitaries watched, the priests sprinkled Shastri with rose petals and stacked sandalwood logs across his white-shrouded body. A torch of thin twigs was handed to Shastri's eldest son, 32-year-old Hari Krishnan. According to custom, he walked three times around his father's body, then put the flame to the pyre. Priests poured on ghee and incense. Within seconds, the flames erupted, illuminating the wisp of white under the logs. Soon...