Yearender 2018: Sridevi, Stephen Hawking, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Stan Lee - Remembering the stalwarts who said their last goodbyes

Intro:

When my time comes, forget the wrong that I’ve done, help me leave behind some reasons to be missed…And when you're feeling empty, Keep me in your memory, Leave out all the rest, Leave out all the rest…This beautiful song by iconic rock band Linkin Park sums up the essence of the moment when you sit down and start thinking about all those people who said their last goodbyes in 2018. Sridevi, Stephen Hawking, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Stan Lee – these were the personalities, who were above any boundary of caste, class, creed, religion or region. These legends have left a void that will remain etched in our hearts. So here are the icons, who gave us hope, inspired us to do better, gave us courage to think impossible and made us believe in goodness of humanity:

Sridevi:

Sridevi (February): On February 24, 2018, India woke up to the most disbelieving story of the year. ‘Sridevi dies of accidental drowning inside her hotel bathroom’, screamed the TV channels. People kept on checking and rechecking the news sites to hope that this was some horrible prank, except that it was not. As the day progressed, India came to the terms of her loss. ‘Chandni’ ruled every ‘Lamhe’ of Bollywood. This ‘Sadma’ shook the Indian film industry. The young girl, who made her acting debut in 1967 at the tender age of 4, Sridevi ruled Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada cinema for decades. In a largely male-dominated industry, Sridevi unprecedented star power was simply unmatched. The legend who gave #sareegoals to girls, Sridevi will always remain the epitome of grace, charm, beauty and warmth.

Stephen Hawking:

Stephen Hawking (March): Doctors told him that he had just two years to live. But he defied destiny, bent the rules and became one of the most famous, legendary scientist of all times. Yes, we are talking about Stephen Hawking, who breathed his last in March. Hawking’s ‘A Brief History of Time’ made Guinness Record for staying as bestselling book for record 237 weeks.

Avicii:

Avicii (April): Tim Bergling , popularly known as Avicii, was the ultimate DJ icon, This Swedish artist made his fans groove to his tunes and made several hits such as ‘Wake Me Up’ and ‘Hey Brother.’ He was just 28.

Bush:

Barbara Bush (April): Barbara Bush, former Fisrt Lady of the US, died at the age of 92. Though she had requested in her last wishes a modest funeral at the Gothic-style cathedral, where she and her husband, former President George H W Bush, were devoted members for decades, around 6,000 people turned up to pay their last respects to ‘First Lady of Greatest Generation.’

Anthony:

Anthony Bourdain (June): He made us fall in love with two things – eating and travelling all over again. Anthony Bourdain, renowned chef, food critic and writer died of a suspected suicide on June 8. He was 61. Bourdain, best known for his CNN series "Parts Unknown", was in Strasbourg, France, to shoot for the new season of the show, when he allegedly ended his life.

Neeraj:

Gopaldas Neeraj (July): A doyen of Hindi poetry, Gopaldas Neeraj died on July 19 at the AIIMS trauma centre in New Delhi. He was 93. Neeraj had suffered a head injury following a fall at his house in Agra. A highly-acclaimed Hindi poet who was honoured with the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan, Neeraj distinguished himself as a great lyricist who wrote some of the most-popular Hindi film songs like - Karvan guzar gaya, gubar dekhte rahe.

Vajpayee:

Atal Bihari Vajpayee (August): India lost one of her greatest sons on August 16. An orator par excellence, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee died at the AIIMS in New Delhi after battling with prolonged illness. Vajpayee was one of India's most charismatic leaders who led the nation through several crises and held together a tenuous coalition with his inclusive politics. He was 93.

Karunanidhi:

M Karunanidhi (August): DMK chief M Karunanidhi, one of the foremost Dravidian politicians in modern times, died on August 7. One of the most charismatic figures of Tamil Nadu politics whose public life spanned over seven decades, the DMK Patriarch is survived by two wives and six children, including DMK working president and heir apparent M K Stalin and daughter Kanimozhi, a Rajya Sabha MP. The most enduring mascot of the Dravidian movement breathed his last at 6.10 p.m. The sharp-tongued, quick witted Karunanidhi was a five-time chief minister, who wielded considerable influence beyond his own state, in the corridors of power in New Delhi, for a long time, sewing up alliances with both the Congress and the BJP. Hugely influenced by the rationalist and egalitarian ideology of E V Ramasamy 'Periyar' and DMK founder and the state's first chief minister C N Annadurai, Karunanidhi became one of the most enduring mascots of the Dravidian Movement, which aimed at seeking equal rights for the depressed sections and women, and was against Brahminism.

Aretha Franklin:

Aretha Franklin (August): Aretha Franklin, the legendary Queen of Soul, died on August 16 at the age of 76. The singer, who performed in a gospel choir in childhood and later graduated to master other genres such as pop and soul music, rose to worldwide prominence in the 1960s. Franklin's first Hot 100 song, "Won't Be Long", debuted when she was barely 18 years old in 1961. She was the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and has 18 Grammy awards to her credit.

Somnath:

Somnath Chatterjee (August): Communist veteran and former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee died at a private hospital in Kolkat on August 13 following multiple organ failure. He was 89 and survived by wife, a son and two daughters. A 10-time Lok Sabha MP, Chatterjee was a central committee member of the CPI(M), which he had joined in 1968.He was the Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2009. The veteran leader was, however, expelled from the CPI(M) in 2008 for refusing to resign as Speaker after his party withdrew support to the UPA-I government.

Tiwari:

ND Tiwari (October): Congress veteran Narayan Dutt Tiwari, who served in various positions at the Centre and in states and was even a strong contender for prime ministership in 1991, died on his birthday at a private hospital on October 18. Tiwari, who was considered close to Indira Gandhi, had served as a Union minister in several Congress-led governments. He had the unique distinction of having served as the chief minister of two states, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, where his native place is located. After Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, Tiwari lost the bid to become the prime minister to P V Narasimha Rao when he was defeated in Nainital seat in the 1991 Lok Sabha elections. He formed Congress (T), the breakaway faction of the Congress, along with veteran Congress leader Arjun Singh in 1995 during the tenure of Rao. However, he later merged his party with the Congress when Sonia Gandhi took charge of the party. He was a three-time chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. He was also the Uttarakhand chief minister from 2002-2007.From 2007 until 2009, he served as the Governor of Andhra Pradesh, but was forced to resign following a sex scandal.

Lee:

Stan Lee (November): Iron Man, The Hulk, Captain America and Spider-Man – even if you are not an Avengers or Marvel fan – you still know about them. These are the superheroes created by a Marvel-ous man named Sta Lee. The Marvel legend, who revolutionised pop culture as the co-creator of iconic superheroes Hulk who now dominate the world's movie screens, died on November 12. He was 95-years-old. Lee ended up in the comics business by accident, thanks to an uncle who got him a job when he was a teenager filling artists' inkwells and fetching coffee. Lee rose through the ranks to become a comics writer, making millions of superhero fans dream of his fantastic universes and humans with extraordinary powers, and eventually led the Marvel empire for decades as its publisher. From Spidey to Black Panther to the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, Lee collaborated with other authors and illustrators to put his lively imagination on the page.

Kumar:

Ananth Kumar (November): Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar died at the Sankara Hospital in Bengaluru on November 12 after battling lung cancer for several months. Kumar, 59, had been undergoing treatment in the US and the UK and had only returned to Bengaluru recently. A six-time member of Parliament, Kumar had climbed the political ladder steadily from being an RSS worker to be a Union minister in his thirties. Kumar had been in the inner circle of the central leadership of the BJP—be it during the heyday of Atal Bihari Vajpayee or L.K. Advani and now Narendra Modi. Kumar joined the BJP in 1987 and never looked back, as he held posts of state secretary, state president of the Yuva Morcha, general secretary and national secretary

Bush:

George HW Bush (December): Months after his wife’s death, George H W Bush, the 41st president of the US who led America during the collapse of the Soviet Union and the turning back of an Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, died on December 1. He was 94. His death, which was announced by his office, came less than eight months after that of his wife of 73 years, Barbara Bush. The decorated war pilot and former CIA chief, Bush was elected president on November 8, 1988. He was sworn in on January 20, 1989, and served until January 20, 1993. During his term in office, a revolution of human liberty swept the globe, emancipating tens of millions of people and unleashing a series of transformative events: collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War; the Berlin Wall "fell", and Germany united within NATO following 45 years of postwar division. Besides, other prominent figures who left for their heavenly abode in 2018 include - RK Dhawan, Mohd Aziz, Rita Bhaduri, Tarun Sagar, Madan Lal Khurana, Paul Allen, Kofi Anan, Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati and Kalpana Lajmi.