The other half

An unlikely Punjab connection, an interest in gems, a pin-up girl, a quiet presence, an admission that it’s the husband who makes the first peace move after a fight. BS Weekend finds these first ladies are as different as they come and all powers unto themselves

MICHELLE OBAMA
The Punjab connection
A year ago, in November, when President Barack Obama hosted a state dinner for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the White House, Michelle Obama chose to wear a strapless gold and cream gown designed by Indian-American designer Naeem Khan. The gown was, in a sense, an outcome of outsourcing, a concept the US President openly frowns upon — it was crafted at Khan’s family workshop in India and 40 people worked on it. Then, not too long ago, she wore a creation by Prabal Gurung, an alumni of the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Delhi. And last year, she was seen wearing a necklace designed by Delhi-based jewellery designer Pieter Erasmus for a White House dinner.

But Michelle Obama’s India connection goes beyond clothes and jewellery. It dates back to 1961, when her uncle Nomenee Robinson, an architect, served in our very own Punjab as a volunteer in the Peace Corps set up by then US president John F Kennedy. It’s speculated that this is the connection that had the Obamas planning a trip to Amritsar — a rather unusual stopover for a president of the United States — before logistics played spoilsport.

The US first lady, who turns 47 in January, is known to put spontaneity before protocol. And get away with it too. The world saw an example of this in April last year when the Obamas met Queen Elizabeth II at the Buckingham Palace. As the monarch put her arm around Michelle Obama, the much taller first lady — she’s nearly 5’11” — responded in kind by putting an arm around the Queen. An inexcusable act, for the rule is: “Don’t touch the Queen”. But royalty didn’t seem to mind. The Queen is reported to have told Michelle Obama, “Now that we’ve met, will you please keep in touch?”

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama – yes, that’s her formal name – is known for her charm. But there’s more to her than that. The President’s wife, who wants to leave a legacy, is waging a battle against childhood obesity through a campaign called ‘Let’s Move!’ A champion for healthy eating, she also has a small organic farm on the White House lawns.

GURSHARAN KAUR
Saree, sartorially
Michelle Obama’s fashion statements and Carla Bruni’s multiple roles have reporters filing column after column. Back home, Gursharan Kaur, wife of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, might appear less exciting in comparison. But it was hard to miss her at the spouses meet during the G20 summit in London last year. Flanked by two rather tall ladies — Michelle Obama and Laureen Harper, wife of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper — Gursharan Kaur stood out for her grace and elegance in a traditional yellow silk saree with a blue border, her grey hair neatly tied in a bun.

While the Prime Minister never changes the colour of his turban — it’s always that one particular shade of blue — Gursharan Kaur likes variety in her Kanjeevarams and printed silk sarees. It’s a taste that has evolved in the last few years. At times she’s also seen in crepe silk sarees but the accessories are almost always conventional: pearls, a couple of bangles and understated earrings. She attracted a lot of attention last year, when she visited the White House with her husband in a heavy black silk saree with a red and gold border. But then, whether she’s attending a state dinner at the White House or flagging a marathon in support of cancer patients in Delhi, Gursharan Kaur is equally at ease.

Not many know that Gursharan Kaur has a melodious voice and even sang kirtans on All India Radio. Born in Jalandhar in 1937, she was the third of six children. She married Manmohan Singh in 1958, and once confessed that when they have a fight, it’s the good doctor who initiates the peace moves. Also, unlike the prime minister, for whom academics came first, Gursharan Kaur admits she was more interested in sport. But she did get a bachelor’s degree in teaching and planned to be a school teacher— life, it turns out, had willed otherwise.

SVETLANA MEDVEDEVA
Look twice
She may not be quite as flamoyantly fashionable as Michelle Obama or Carla Bruni, but Svetlana Medvedeva is no wall-flower, and makes a pretty presence by the side of her husband in her demure dresses by Russian fashion designers such as Valentin Yudashkin.

Early this month she stood in for her husband at the memorial service for the airplane crash that killed the Polish president and 95 others earlier this year. A devout Orthodox Christian, among the first things she did after becoming first lady was to take up the public initiative to declare July 8 as the day of Family, Love and Fidelity. In a country where perceptions of gender roles are still conservative, Medvedeva is quite a public figure unlike her predecessors Ludmilla Putin or Naina Yeltsina, who hardly ever appeared in public.

Svetlana Linnik met Dmitry Medvedev at school in Leningrad, when the two were about seven years old. They were married in 1993. An economics graduate from the Leningrad Financial and Economics Institute, she even worked for a while but stopped after the birth of her son in 1995.

Medvedeva had the reputation for being something of a socialite, at least before she became first lady. Russian arts and culture are her areas of interest, and she initiated the annual Russian festival in Bari, Italy in 2006. She even took Michelle Obama on a tour of the Kremlin museum and treated her to a performance of Russian folk dancing when the American first lady was in Moscow on a state visit. Smiling and affable both, the two first ladies apparently share a great rapport.

CARLA BRUNI
The first lady of fashion
Will she-won’t she’ was the debate that raged through the Indian media on the eve of Nicholas Sarkozy’s last visit to India in 2008.

In the end, Carla Bruni didn’t accompany her then boyfriend on his state visit to India. This time, as French first lady, she will reportedly be at Sarkozy’s side when he comes visiting in the first week of December. This will be her first visit to the country, and the Taj Mahal will likely be part of the itinerary.

Incidentally, Bruni has an Indian connection, one that few know about. Ceat, the Mumbai-based tyre manufacturer owned by the RPG group, was actually started by her grandfather Virginio Bruni Tedeschi in Turin in the 1920s. Alberto, his son, sold the company to Pirelli in the 1970s, and Bruni is one of the heirs to the monies. RPG took over the Indian subsidiary, formed in 1958, in 1982 and acquired the rights to the Ceat brandname. Today India is the only country where the name Ceat exists.

Sexy and svelte, Bruni is the cynosure of media attention wherever she goes. She’s been on Vanity Fair’s “International Best Dressed List” for three years running. Jean Paul Gaultier and Christian Dior which she modelled for, are her favoured designers. Bruni is also a great one for Hermes scarves and Birkin bags. Four inches taller than her husband, she mostly wears pump shoes with low heels.

Much of the attention is prurient, of course. Bruni is legion for her lovers, among them Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger. In March this year there were rumours that her marriage to Sarkozy was on the verge of breakdown. She’s also (in)famous for the nude photographs of her which apparently sold in an auction for close to $90,000. The French first lady is also a singer with three albums; a fourth will be out next year. She is also set to act in a Woody Allen film.

ZHANG BEILI
Jewel in the crown
Wen Jiabao met his future wife Zhang Beili in the dusty and poor western province of Gansu during Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Wen had just graduated from the prestigious Beijing Institute of Geology. So he was sent to work as a mining prospector. Zhang, also a geologist, was a fellow worker. Zhang, who is a year older than her husband, reportedly had to compete with two other women to win Wen’s affections. It is said the winning factor was her willingness to go to his dorm and wash his clothes.

Wen is known as a ‘man of the people’ who sometimes escapes official convoys to talk to ordinary villagers. But he has survived the purging of two direct bosses, Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang, and yet continued his climb to China’s number two position. His wife Zhang is more colourful — it’s said she likes to sing and dance. In their Gansu days, the Los Angeles Times reported, Zhang once bought Wen a suit, but he refused to wear it. Instead every year for the last 11 he has been pictured in the same dull green winter coat.

Zhang’s career has not been low-profile. She became vice-president of the China Association of Jewellery, and president of the Beijing Diamond Corp. She gave up both positions when Wen became premier in 2003, but may still exercise some control in the company. Unlike other political spouses, however, Zhang does not accompany her husband on official tours. In 2007 Taiwanese TV showed two jewellery dealers effusing about Zhang’s taste in gems. One said she had bought jade pieces from him at a Beijing trade fair, including a pair of $275,000 earrings; the other said she liked emeralds and coral. Eventually the two retracted, so the facts remain obscure, though the incident was an embarrassment. Not in China, of course: the official media ignored the story.