Balloons, cake and empty chairs: Sonia recalls Rahul's lonely 7th birthday

Sonia Gandhi recalls that only one friend attended Rahul Gandhi's seventh birthday celebration in 1977. The episode showed how Indira Gandhi's electoral defeat exposed the family's children to political hostility.In her memoir, Sonia Gandhi recalled that only one friend attended Rahul Gandhi's 7th birthday in 1977. (PTI photo)New Delhi,Nov 11, 2026 10:28 ISTRahul Gandhi's seventh birthday became a sombre occasion after all but one of his friends stayed away following his grandmother Indira Gandhi's electoral defeat in 1977, according to a report by news agency Press Trust of India.In her memoir, Belonging: A Journey Of Love, Sonia Gandhi describes the incident as an early and painful lesson for Rahul about the fickleness of relationships in politics."On Rahul's birthday, June 19, we'd barely managed to settle into our new home, 12, Willingdon Crescent, but I was determined to have a small celebration for him. He'd given me a list of friends to be invited, children who'd attended his previous birthday parties," she writes.Sonia Gandhi says birthday parties at the time were simple, with a few decorations, a homemade cake, snacks and potato chips, which were popular with children and adults. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra helped her prepare the cake and put up the decorations. "She had climbed up a chair and, held up by her brother, was hanging up balloons on the verandah's doors. At every stage she would call out, 'Ma, look! Look — how pretty.' Everything was soon ready: bunting and balloons, the table in the front verandah colourfully decorated," Sonia Gandhi recounts.She also recalls that Indira Gandhi had a collection of clay toys from Bengal made to resemble insects, lizards and flies. The toys were kept in a tin box and wrapped in cotton wool to prevent them from breaking. "She asked me to have the box handy so she could, at an opportune moment, quietly pop some on the table or on one of the children's plates. That would invariably startle the guests and cause much amusement and laughter," Sonia Gandhi writes.As the family waited for the guests, Rahul and Priyanka inspected the arrangements one final time, according to the memoir, published by HarperCollins India and released on Tuesday."Time passed. Rahul's best friend, Siddharth, arrived by himself. More time went by. I thought at first there might have been a miscommunication and got down to calling one parent after another. But the response was strangely evasive, and then it hit me: No other children were coming. Yes, things had indeed changed: A simple association between a seven-year-old and his classmates had been tainted by politics," she says.Rahul was visibly hurt despite attempts by his grandmother and parents to cheer him up, Sonia Gandhi says in the account reported by PTI. "We cut the cake, but without much cheer, and my mother-in-law handed me back the toy box. 'We can use it another time,' she said, sadly," she recalls.Rajiv Gandhi later tried to comfort Rahul. "It's not your friends' fault, Rahul, don't be upset with them," he told him. "Maybe their parents are afraid of being friends with your family. Some people are scared of the government."Sonia Gandhi says it was a difficult period for the children as political turmoil and tension affected their lives at home and outside. The family was also concerned because Rahul and Priyanka were sometimes mocked by their schoolmates."They'd come home upset and ask me, 'Ma, why are people calling Dadi and Chacha thieves?' 'Why are they saying they'll go to jail?' 'Have they done something bad?' I would try to explain and calm them down. 'It is not true. Some people are against them, but you know how strong they are: there's nothing to fear,'" she writes.Recalling another incident, Sonia Gandhi says she received a message from Priyanka's school saying that her daughter had been crying. She rushed there and found Priyanka outside the classroom, trying to dry her tears."I hugged her and asked her to tell me what had happened. A boy had said something nasty to her. I was furious. I wasn't going to let it pass. But as she realised that I was on the warpath, she pleaded, 'No, Ma, no — please don't say anything to him. He's already been scolded by the teacher,'" Sonia Gandhi recalls. "My heart sank: Here was my little five-year-old teaching me a lesson in forgiveness!"Indira Gandhi imposed the Emergency shortly before midnight on June 25, 1975. President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed issued the proclamation at her behest, and it was later ratified by the Union Cabinet.On January 18, 1977, Indira Gandhi called fresh elections and released all political prisoners. She and her son Sanjay Gandhi were defeated in the Lok Sabha elections on March 16, and the Emergency officially ended on March 21 that year.The Gandhi family subsequently faced several cases. The political tide turned for the family only after Indira Gandhi won a by-election from Chikkamagalur in November 1978.- Ends