The book that inspired me

Pallavi Jha, Managing Director, Dale Carnegie Training India

Indira Gandhi is our most debated politician "" loved and misunderstood at the same time. Her amazing public image apart, I got an insight into the person that she was.

As I read about her offering as a three-year-old toddler, torn between the love of her doll and the duty towards her country, of her favourite doll to be burned in the bonfire for foreign-made goods, I was struck by her intrinsic personal strength capable of sacrifices and strong sense of patriotism and duty "" a quality she almost seemed to be born with.

Her life was so atypical and divorced from the regular upbringing we wish for our own children. Often separated from her family since her days of schooling in so many different institutions and milieus, it showed me her stoic acceptance of reality and the ability to be flexible, adjusting to her changing environments.

Yet her family bonds were very strong. With every loss in her family, from her mother to eventually her younger son, she accepted her destiny with courage. Professionally, her transformation from the "gungi gudiya" to the most charismatic leader who held the country under her sway for more than three decades is a lesson in leadership.

The biography has inspired me, as a woman and a professional, and given me a role model of a self-reliant woman, complete in herself.

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Indira: The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi

Author: Katherine Frank
Pages: 567
Publisher:Harper Collins
ISBN: : 0002556464