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.
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 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.
Who would have ever thought that this love at first sight will land an ordinary girl from Italy into the Forbes list of Third most powerful women in the world.
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.
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