Grandmother's ears

Sharada Prasad remembers Indira Gandhi of his years spent with her and sees only freshness, speed and a steely equipoise

Two birthdays have just gone by — one of a person I wish I had worked for, Jawaharlal Nehru, and the other of a person I am glad I did work with, Indira Gandhi. People who worked for Jawaharlal Nehru say he made them feel that they were making history. With Indira Gandhi, you made history, without being too self-conscious of it. Because of her resort to the Emergency, there are many people who imagine that Indira was a power-hungry, ruthless fiend who cared little about the feelings of the people. On the contrary, she was considerate and sensitive, and never made people feel small. Seeing her from close for more than 18 years, what struck me most was the speed at which her mind worked, the way she conserved her energy, her feeling for the occasion-and, yes, her sense of humour.

She thought fast, she worked fast, she walked fast and she got ready in surprisingly little time. Men make fun of women for taking time to change their clothes: she would say, "But I challenge any of you men to do that quicker than me." On flights, she might be working with her staff until touchdown. She would ask them to withdraw, and by the time the doors opened, she would have changed into a new sari. She did not drop her shawl or cardigan on the chair in a heap but invariably folded it and kept it in its place or in her bag. When she left a room, including her office in the South Block, she made it a point to turn off the fans and lights. She was a great observer of economy-and this could be seen in the economy of her gestures.

One of her regrets was that she did not have a richer voice. Another was about the length of her nose. Early in her tenure, a heckler at a public meeting in Orissa threw a stone that hit her right on her proboscis. She sent a picture of her reset and bandaged face to her sons, both of whom were then in London, remarking, "Don't I look like Batman?" To her friend, Dorothy Norman, she wrote saying she had hoped that that here was a heaven-sent chance to change the shape of her nose, but the surgeons had overruled it.

Her personal secretary, Usha Bhagat, has just published a book of reminiscences. There is an interesting incident that she seems to have forgotten. Rahul was a baby of five or six months and he was fast asleep in his grandmother's study as she worked on a speech. Suddenly, his face broke into a broad smile. Usha Bhagat remarked that whenever an infant smiles in sleep, angels are believed to be flying over him. Upon which Indira said, "What romantic nonsense. It just means that the infant has passed wind!" Phew!
Since Jawaharlal Nehru's time, prime ministers have been attending annual sessions of the Science Congress. Indira Gandhi never missed an opportunity to be with the scientific community. At lunchtime at a Science Congress session, she found a group in lively conversation around BP Pal of the Indian Society of Genetics and Plant Breeding, the editor of the Indian Journal of Genetics & Plant Breeding. The group fell into a hush as Indira approached. She was aware that Dr Pal was as well known for his stock of risqué jokes as for his roses, and said, "Go on with the story, Dr Pal." "They are not for ladies' ears, madam," he said. To which her reply was, "Don't forget that I am a grandmother. Nothing is banned for a grandmother's ears!"

She had remarkable self-control and concentration. One of her better-known portraits was done by the Russian-American painter, Michael A Werboff (1896-1996). He was amazed that she could sit still for 15-20 minutes at a stretch without twitching a muscle. He had painted scores of portraits of people in power, and in none of them had he found this degree of self-control. Werboff's way of conveying his appreciation to her was to tell her, "Madam, if ever you lose this job and need a new one, there is one waiting for you. We painters cannot hope for a more cooperative model."

She responded, "I might need it sooner than you think. But don't tell our voters."