A lot has been written about former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, a lot of it, the Congress leader says, “either invented or exaggerated”. Now, she says, it is her turn to “put down my story” with her memoir, ‘Belonging: A Journey Of Love’.
The 79-year-old understands the risks with telling her own story, adding it is “bound to be a tamasha” when the memoir releases worldwide on November 10, right after Diwali.
“Well I felt since a lot had been written about me, and a lot of it was not quite correct, or you know it was either invented or exaggerated, so it gave me a feel of being able to now put down my story and describe facts and things as they were, as they really were. Or let us say my, not version, I wouldn’t say version, but my story,” Gandhi, who dropped the latest teaser from her memoir, said in a video posted on X when asked how it feels to write your own story after a lifetime of being written about.
“People have different views. Some people may change their view about me. Some people’s view may become worse, but that’s what it is. That’s what happens when you write a book, or when you are in public life. There’s bound to be a tamasha as you would say it here,” she said.
Gandhi said she was against her husband, Rajiv Gandhi, becoming the Prime Minister after the assassination of Indira Gandhi.
“When then, my husband was, you know, asked to become Prime Minister, which I was totally against,” she said.
In an earlier post on X on Saturday, Gandhi recalled how her love story with former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi began in 1965 at a small Greek restaurant called The Varsity in Cambridge, England.
“In a small Greek restaurant in Cambridge, my journey of love began. Rajiv and I created a world filled with love, laughter and memories. On 10th November, I share that world with you,” she said.
She recalled how the restaurant became the setting for the beginning of their relationship.
“That is when I met Rajiv; in that very restaurant. When I first met him, I felt almost immediately that he was someone I would really love to be with. And of course, I learned out he felt the same. I remember when I first met him, a common friend introduced us and then we became friends. We used to go to parties with friends,” Sonia recalled.
The memoir is being published globally by Alfred A Knopf, with HarperCollins India handling its release in the country.
