Two Alone, Two Together: Nehru-Indira letters captivate

Two Alone, Two Together
Edited bySonia Gandhi Hodder & Stoughton
Pages:697
Price:Rs 1759

For those fascinated by the most popular question of 1992-what is Sonia Gandhi doing?-here is part of the answer. Of course, this particular project began long before the tragedy that shattered her life, but there is an element of continuity between the two volumes of letters of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi she has edited and the album of love which was released on Rajiv Gandhi's birthday.In her typically self-effacing manner, Sonia Gandhi has concentrated on becoming an archivist of the family that is now as much hers as anv Nehru's. The Rajiv memoir in a sirz completes a dramatic spectrum.

What a joy it is to read Tawaharlai's prose, particularly when he can find the time to relish his own creativity. He had a wonderful eye, a brilliant mind, and a pen which delighted in all the pleasures of subtlety. A few sentences map out high society Lahore of January, 1940: "It is surprising how Muslim young women of the upper middle class are taking to socialism, or at any rate think they are.