All finesse: Nirmala Sitharaman doesn't miss a beat in her Budget debut

Unlike her predecessors Arun Jaitley and Piyush Goyal, Sitharaman had no band of cheerleaders

The nervousness was palpable. As she adjusted her sari to affix the microphone that would relay the Budget live to the world, Nirmala Sitharaman’s fingers trembled and she thought she might need a safety pin. With barely a minute to go for 11 am, there was no time to get one. 

On the third try, the microphone was fixed, and she took a deep breath. Then she bowed low, folded her hands to her parents who were sitting in the Speaker’s gallery (her husband, Prabhakar Parakala, was in Hyderabad). Her uncle nodded. Her aunt smiled. Her daughter, Vangmayee, waggled her