Bibliofile

Campaigning and reading don't usually go together. But preserved in the Indira Gandhi museum on Delhi's Safdarjung Road is the airbag Rajiv was carrying on his fatal journey to Sriperumbudur. An improbable travel accessory for a political candidate on a whistle-stop tour: a book. The book, a hefty pilot's manual, doesn't compare with his mother's impressive library (including a well-thumbed copy of Salim Ali's Book of Indian Birds). But still. Wonder what Sonia carries in her campaign bag. Norman Vincent Peale's classic, Think Positive, perhaps? And Atalji? How about My Best Friend Moved Away?