Is the author telling the truth or is it an attempt to glorify the woman who was her friend for years?

I wondered for the first time since I started reading the book on Indira Gandhi by Pupul Jaykar. The book said that during the shortage of wheat and rice in India in 1966 Indira Gandhi had stopped eating both. The fact that India had to go with a begging bowl to the US of A for food seems incomprehensible in today's India with a booming economy. But what seems more bizzare is that a politician should care so much.

Could it be that I have become too cynical after watching the juvenile behavior of some of the current Indian politicians? Is it possible that there was once a species of politicians who despite their dirty bag of tricks, leg-pulling and back-biting really cared for what happened to India and her people?

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Here's a riddle. There's a thing that we all chase throughout our lives and very few of us seem to really get it. It's described by a 5-letter word. If you said "Money" you are wrong, my friends!

There's another clue and this time you should be able to get it. After Bangala Desh was formed Indira Gandhi made a comment to Pupul Jaykar. That indicated that she was also chasing it - but for the country.

"Glory" you said? Wrong again! The answer is "Peace". And Indira Gandhi's comment was something like "Will we be able to get peace?"

36 years down the lane and India is still chasing it!

I am not one of those who have only hatred for the British for colonizing us. I agree that they did a lot of good things for India - though from a purely selfish point of view. But I will never ever forgive them for sowing the seeds for breaking this country apart.

I am not saying Hindus and Muslims would have "lived happily ever after" if there hadn't been a partition. But we would have worked out our differences and saner voices on both sides would have prevailed. Now it's an uphill task at the best and it will be always tinted with the bitter memories of the partition - even after those who actually suffered are gone. :-(

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I am not a fan of politics and politicians - except for ex-president Kalam. But he is not a politician anyways :-) So I started reading this book by Pupul Jaykar with an open mind. I wanted to know not only about Indira Gandhi as a person but also about the era during which she held the office.

And I wanted to know about the Emergency. What I read shocked as well as saddened me. In this day and age when a plethora of TV channels and a variety of media is churning out all sorts of information - useful as well as banal - it is shocking to think of the time when there was a gag order against media.

But what saddened me most was if the issue of population control had been handled sensitively and with taking people into confidence, it would have been a huge gift to India from a very dark era in her history.