Jab They Met: Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi

New Delhi: It was on one beautiful morning in the year 1956 when a charming and attractive man visited Varsity restaurant in London with his friends. It was like any other hangout time for him. But little did he know that his life was soon going to change. Sonia Maino, who was working at the same restaurant as a part time waitress, soon saw him and felt an instant connection with this young and strikingly good-looking man.It was love at first sight for both. The very first meeting transformed into love. Sonia hailed from an ordinary background in Italy, and was studying at Cambridge at that time. She was working as a part time waitress for her pocket money. After spending a considerable time on courtship, Sonia discovered that the guy of her dreams was none other than Rajiv Gandhi, son of the first political family of India.Who would have ever thought that this love at first sight will land an ordinary girl from Italy into the Forbes list of most powerful people in the world?She was so love struck that she wrote to her parents and told them about her relationship with Rajiv.After spending three years of courtship, in 1968 the two tied a knot in Delhi. An Italian girl was not of course what India's first family, the Nehru-Gandhi family, was looking for. Rajiv's mother, Indira Gandhi was initially very reluctant towards the alliance. But as time passed both Indira and Sonia developed an inseparable bond. At the wedding, Big B Amitabh Bachchan's father poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan, a family friend, peformed the role of a father-in-law for Sonia.Rajiv desired to stay away from the glare of politics and so did Sonia. Rajiv became a pilot in Indian Airlines and the couple lived a peaceful life.But destiny had something else in store for them. Indira Gandhi lost elections in 1977. Rajiv Gandhi's younger brother, Sanjay Gandhi, died in a plane crash on January 23, 1980. Indira Gandhi's assassination followed in the year 1984.Her untimely death compelled Rajiv to take over his mother's place and join politics. Rajiv was sworn in Prime Minister on October 31, 1984, the very day Indira Gandhi was assassinated. Rajiv ruled as PM till 1989, when his party lost the elections and he became Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. But his political journey did not last for long. He was assassinated in a suicide bomb attack by an LTTE suicide bomber in 1991 in Perumbudur, Tamil Nadu. After Rajiv's ill-timed death, Sonia was devastated and she decided to stay away from politics as she knew death was hovering over her and her two kids, Rahul and Priyanka.But probably it was Rajiv's love which gave her strength to gather herself and took over the Congress party which was in a deteriorating condition.She led the party to victory in the 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha elections but declined to become Prime Minister, when the oppposition raised the question of her Italian origin.Their love story is one which will be remembered by every Indian living and their generations to come.