Far from poll frenzy, Sheila settles in new role
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For people, who had expected this to be the autumn for the matriarch, it has played out as a bit of a shock. In her new avatar as the governor of Kerala, Delhi’s once grande dame Sheila Dikshit has slipped into her apolitical role with seeming grace and ease. In an olive and yellow saree, sitting in one of the many drawing rooms in the magnificent governor’s residence — once the home of the Travancore kings — she has been catching up on the things she missed out as an active politician.
The interest in what is going on is never far from the surface. She feels this is the most unpredictable election ever. She laments the excessive verbiage in these polls at the cost of discussion on policies and says she has no advice to offer her son Sandeep Dikshit, who is contesting the polls from East Delhi.
She passes her days reading everything from Mahatma Gandhi to PG Wodehouse and is yet to sink her teeth into Kerala authors. She recently went on a train journey to take in the gorgeous Kerala countryside. “I realise how truly national we have become when I see women here wearing salwar kameez and not the Kerala sari.” She is all alone here but says she is glad of the solitude after the thrust and parry of politics.
She has no regrets about ending her glorious career with a stunning loss to a greenhorn like AAP’s Arvind Kerjiwal.
“I live for the moment,” she says.