SHE TAKES HER PICKLEMAKING SERIOUSLY
If Nirmala Sitharaman’s job as Defence Minister gave her the opportunity to go on a sortie on a Sukhoi fighter jet, it also took away the joy of going down south to make pickle. As BJP spokesperson, she would fly to Hyderabad to make pickle because in her family, picklemaking is “serious business…actually a ritual”. Had a friend not pitched in, Sitharaman would have probably asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to give her a few days off from her duties as Defence Minister to fulfil this ritual. Earlier, a jar would be packed for Narasimha Rao, former Prime Minister, that Sitharaman’s fatherin-law, a Congressman, would handdeliver.
Her home in Delhi is perhaps among the few homes to grow betel leaf and turmeric, and “it comes in handy during festivals,” says Sitharaman, while sipping tea the way south Indians drink coffee: from a
stainless steel tumbler and dabarah or davara, the traditional container to cool the coffee. Her guests meanwhile are served in fine china. The tumbler has often surprised foreign visitors, including one from Kazakhstan “who wondered why she is not sharing what she herself is drinking”.
From being a salesgirl in a home-store in London, where she won a bottle of champagne for registering the highest sales, Nirmala Sitharaman has come a long way. She married Prabhakar Palakar but did not affix his name to hers: “My mother also retained her maiden name.” Sitharaman
says, sitting on a jhoola, which is a family heirloom. Later, she gave up a prize job with PricewaterhouseCoopers to return to India because she wanted their child to be born at home.
Her mother’s death almost numbed her. She became a recluse and perhaps, around the same time, lost her smile, her stern face becoming her hallmark.
Her ‘wow’ moment came when she flew a Sukhoi, unaware of what she was getting into: “When I was told that the blood flow could stop, I developed cold feet”. However, at the end of a 44-minute flight, the thrill of “having done it” replaced her initial fears.
Being in politics is one thing but being a sari-clad minister presiding over officers in uniform quite another. “I put my ignorance on the table, I said I was willing to learn but not give in,” she says.
A Krishna devotee in a Ram-obsessed party, Sitharaman draws on Krishna’s philosophy in the Defence Ministry: “My inspiration is Krishna who said it is one’s
dharma to fight when necessary”.
Regarding the allegations over the Rafale deal, the BJP government seems to be facing its Bofors moment, as it were. Sitharaman dismisses the comparison: “Bofors is Bofors while Rafale is a government-to-government agreement done in national interest and keeping in mind the operational preparedness of the Air Force.”
Sitharaman believes that destiny has a
major role in shaping her life: “Without providential help I cannot be where I am today. There is someone above who is working things out”. It is in this context that she has described herself as a “mere drop on a lotus leaf” more than once. This has also helped her in being detached from things she loves: “Yes, I miss my family but remain connected through pictures”.
SITHARAMAN’S ‘WOW’ MOMENT CAME WHEN SHE FLEW A SUKHOI... AT THE END OF A 44MINUTE FLIGHT, THE THRILL OF “HAVING DONE IT” REPLACED HER INITIAL FEARS.
Different Strokes is a fortnightly series