Sunanda Pushkar was an ambitious lady who had struggled throughout her life to earn an identity of her own. She was married twice before she fell for Shashi Tharoor.
Her first marriage did not work out well and she and her husband went for divorce with mutual consent. Her second husband was a Keralite businessman Sujith Menon. He died in an accident in 1997.
They had a son, Shiv. After Sujith Menon's death, Sunanda had become very lonely. She felt as though she had no one in this huge world. Loneliness and concern for her son, gave her extreme stress.