Sonia Gandhi shared a video of three generations recalling Diwali celebrations at Indira Gandhi's former residence on Sunday.
Two days before her memoir hits Indian bookstores, the conversation offers readers an intimate glimpse into the family's traditions at the same house where Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984.
In the garden of 1 Safdarjung Road, the home of her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, her daughter Priyanka Gandhi and her granddaughter Miraya Vadra filmed the conversation. She wrote a note about revisiting her early memories alongside the post.
"Revisiting my early memories of celebrating Diwali - the traditions, the festivities and the little moments that made it so special," Sonia Gandhi, senior Congress leader, wrote.
Posted on X and Instagram, the video forms part of her recent social media debut on both platforms.
During the festivities, Sonia Gandhi recalled, the entire house was lit with diyas. The first lighting was always done by Ganeshji's murti.
"We would do the first lighting of the diyas by Ganeshji's murti. In those days we didn't have those little lights everywhere but we had diyas everywhere, around the pond, all along the roof, veranda and along the path. It was very pretty," Sonia Gandhi, senior Congress leader, said.
During the festival, Kashmiri food was cooked at the residence, and Priyanka Gandhi remembered celebrating festivals with her father Rajiv Gandhi at the official residence.
She recalled that Rajiv Gandhi used to take them to Chandni Chowk to buy firecrackers.
"Papa used to take us to Chandni Chowk to buy firecrackers," Priyanka Gandhi, daughter of Sonia Gandhi, said.
People reacted to firecrackers with great enthusiasm in those days, Sonia Gandhi said. She especially enjoyed fireworks such as the phuljhadi. Both women recalled Diwalis with pleasant weather and clear blue skies.
The video showed Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi discussing childhood Diwali celebrations, The Economic Times reported. The festival brought friends and family from different communities to the home.
The Hindustan Times, however, described the memories as celebrations at Indira Gandhi's home after Sonia Gandhi's marriage, contradicting The Economic Times' childhood framing.
The video introduces her memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love.
The Guardian published an edited extract from the memoir, which recounts Indira Gandhi being shot dead by her bodyguards at the 1 Safdarjung Road residence in New Delhi.
When news of a serious incident in Delhi reached him, Rajiv Gandhi was attending a political rally in West Bengal. He landed in the national capital at around 3.30 pm and was driven straight to the hospital.
At the hospital, Sonia Gandhi writes, she wanted a moment alone with her husband but realised he was preparing to share news she dreaded.
"We held each other, and as he spoke to me, it sunk in that he was saying something I didn't want to hear. 'I have been asked; They want me to be sworn in as prime minister,'" Sonia Gandhi wrote in her memoir Belonging: A Journey of Love.
She pleaded with him not to accept, fearing he too could become a target. The prospect of him becoming prime minister filled her with anger and anguish.
"I felt as if a knife had been plunged right into my heart. I felt a pounding in my chest, a rage welling up deep inside me. I was about to explode. I attempted to hold it in," Sonia Gandhi wrote in her memoir Belonging: A Journey of Love.
The memoir hits stands on Tuesday, November 10.
