Though I haven't seen her in action or read enough to get inspired, she had a profound impact on me due to the following child hood incidents.
One fine day morning (probably 2nd of 3rd of Nov) my father took me to a Government office (I don't remember what it was) in a small town called Narsampet to mourn and pay tribute the great leader. I can still recall that day... a big garlanded photo frame of Mrs. Indira Gandhi was stationed on a table amid a very big gathering. I searched entire building and got disappointed for not able to see her corpse as my father told me earlier that her dead body was being kept there for all to see. Of course now I know I got tricked ;-).
After a couple of years we moved to a new house. The owner of the house (now a family friend) was a big admirer of Indira. He savors a rare photograph of him taken with Mrs. Gandhi at New Delhi. I learned how charismatic she was and how she used to greet visitors at her home etc.
I think, the lead editorial of The Indian Express on Nov 1, 1984 precisely describes Mrs. Indira Gandhi as An anguished nation will remember Indira Gandhi as one who led the country to great heights, saw a great vision and created opportunities for its realization but then, somehow, never stayed the course, fell, and rose again. She was loved, hated and feared in turn. She had many admirable qualities and her share of political frailties, largely products of her own deep insecurity and sense of mission that she felt was being thwarted by malign forces within the country and a foreign hand.
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