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Meeting with destiny
Muthu Padmakumara recalls her encounter with Sonia Gandhi
It was a lifetime impression for me, a slip of a girl, just out of school, having the chance to meet Mrs. Sonia Gandhi. Even then, over seven years ago, she was one busy lady, continuing her social work while being a single parent. At the time there was talk of Sonia Gandhi leading the Congress. But when I met her, she was a widow, a mother, and the still unofficial torchbearer of the Gandhi dynasty.

My mother and I were invited to meet Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, and we spent some time talking with her at No. 10 Janpath. When Mrs. Gandhi first entered the room, I was immediately struck by the calm composure she radiated. She seemed to have the ability to divide her time and attention between tasks both great and small.

Awe-inspiring
She struck me as someone who would meet disaster and success with equal grace and reserve. Appearing neither as a celebrity nor as the uncrowned royalty of India that her family is, she spoke with quiet dignity and pride of the Gandhis and their contribution to the country.

In the years that passed, I read of how the Congress was urging her to take leadership and support them, support the memory and the dreams of her late husband and her mother-in-law. Even when I met her, all of Delhi was abuzz with the Congress having another Gandhi at the helm. She was reluctant then and did not hide the fact that the toll politics had taken on her life was immense. She had her children to think of. Fiercely protective of them, she resisted inducements to join the fray. Yet her desire to preserve the Gandhi legacy and continue the works of the Gandhi family remained strong.

Last week, I was reading my copy of ‘Rajiv’, the book Sonia Gandhi released one year after his death. Her writing, both simple and clear, spoke straight to my heart and mind. Perhaps I felt what she wrote more keenly, because her country is our nearest neighbour. Or perhaps because I too was a female.

All that the public needs to know of the person, Sonia Gandhi, is in her writing in the book Rajiv. The following words are on the turning point of the Gandhi family, when Rajiv Gandhi's brother Sanjay was killed:

"I fought like a tigress for him, for us, and our children, for the life we had made together, his flying which he loved, our uncomplicated, easy friendships, and, above all for our freedom, that simple human right that we had so carefully and consistently preserved." (p. 6)

Watching on television her slow but steady and quiet step culminating in last week's victory and her subsequent refusal to accept the premiership brought to my mind the losses she had to bear, the battle she would not enter, nor run away from all those years ago. She stood by her husband and family, even though it would bring about untimely and perhaps brutal deaths to those she loved. She says further in the book:

"I was angry and resentful towards a system which, as I saw it, demanded him as a sacrificial lamb. It would crush him and destroy him, of that I was absolutely certain." (p. 7)

Public figure
The public, especially the media, viewed her as an enigma, unable to accept that she was a woman who dreamt of some semblance of normalcy for her family. Did being a Gandhi require your life and those of your loved ones? Her natural reticence and reserve were translated into an image of mystery by much of the media. How can one not empathize with her putting family first?

Dodging the long reaching arm of death, the family she married into continues to serve a vast and diverse nation to their last drop of blood. At the point when Rajiv Gandhi decided to enter politics she says, "I would bow to those forces which were now beyond me to fight, and I would go with him wherever they took." (p. 7)

Again at the killing of her mother-in-law, the Prime Minister of India at the time, when Rajiv Gandhi was propelled towards the role of the new Prime Minister her words speak volumes of her helplessness:

"I remember a longing to be left alone with him for a moment at least... I begged him not to let them do this. I pleaded with him, with others around him too. He would be killed as well. He held my hands, hugged me, and tried to soothe my desperation. He had no choice, he said: he would be killed anyway." (p. 9)

Rajiv Gandhi's destiny or fate enabled him to steer a nation through the doors of a new India that he dreamt of. And his widow Sonia Gandhi has continued to follow him. Her children are now adults. And as the nation clamours for the change and hope that the Gandhi name is expected to deliver, Sonia Gandhi has proven herself to be without a slightest doubt, a true member of the Gandhi family. She has placed her life and that of her children in the continued service of the people of India.

It takes remarkable courage and inner strength to perform the feat that Sonia Gandhi has. Announcing her victory a surprised international media called Sonia Gandhi a 'reluctant politician'. Reluctant she may have been, but not one to shirk from the call of the people.

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