It's been more than 3 years and at least for the first two years, the literary Raji was sound asleep as the mother Raji was trying to fit 20 hours of official and personal work into 16 hours everyday. I gave birth to my second daughter in March 2017 and loved the maternity break that I only got to start after her birth. I have been reading one book or the other since then and for me - reading and writing goes hand in hand. So here I am - Starting my Nth innings of vigorous activity completely unapologetic of the hibernation and unwilling to come up with any logical reasoning, at least for the reading bit.
So last week, I had my WOW moment - I actually met an Ex Prime Minister and he spoke to me for 10 seconds at the most - Now that is equivalent as to winning an olympic gold for me! I spent the next few hours sharing and tweeting the video/photo of the book signing.
Mr. Brown and Ms. Sarah Brown was at SouthBank centre to talk about his time in politics and his current work since retirement from mainstream politics - basically to promote his book. It was meant to be a candid conversation but was more formal than a BBC breakfast show. However, I have always enjoyed watching him talk - political debates, interviews, election propaganda - the man is natural in front of a crowd. This time was no different, he walked and talked with great energy. I had trouble catching up with him when he jumped from one topic to another and basically covered 40 years of his political life in less than 20 minutes of his opening statement.
I was alarmed at how easily celebrities interacted with mere mortals here. There were no mobs calling out slogans, no black cats or body guards. He took his time, shook hands with everyone waiting in line for his signature, spoke something relevant to the person, apologised for the wait time and thanked with the same bright smile even to the last person in the line. I do agree that politics runs in his blood and he is trained to react in a certain way to make the recipient happy irrespective of what goes on in his mind at the time (Yes, I do remember his microphone accident). However, I also believe that being accessible and living like a common man is what makes a true leader in a democracy.
