Photo exhibition brings out unseen facets of Indira Gandhi's life

Saturday, 18 November, 2017
Source : DNA India

These are some of the rare glimpses one gets to see of Indira Gandhi, at I Am Courage, a photography exhibition initiated to mark the centenary celebration of the former Prime Minister
She looks on dotingly at the two toddlers sitting in her lap, patting the family dog. A few steps down, the woman is a grief-stricken daughter, solemnly mourning the demise of her father, her face not betraying any emotion. In the next shot, however, tears streaming down the face, her iron-willed demeanour collapses at the weight of losing a young son, showing a broken mother.

These are some of the rare glimpses one gets to see of Indira Gandhi, at I Am Courage, a photography exhibition initiated to mark the centenary celebration of the former Prime Minister. Being held at the Indira Gandhi Memorial at Safdarjung Road, it traces the life and times of the matriarch of the Gandhi family.

The 300 rare photographs, each accompanied by snippets on the story behind them, unspool Gandhi's emotions, a rarity for the country that has always been privy only to her public persona. In one such picture, she stands by Feroz Gandhi's side, with an expression of a coy bride looking ahead to her new innings.

She's perched on a rock, sitting with her daughter-in-law Sonia Gandhi, both the ladies beaming with happiness. That she was a doting grandmother becomes prominent in scores of photographs with Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, where she lets her guard down, playfully and affectionately. One also sees a young Indira, taking fledgling steps into her political journey, lovingly guided by her father Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.

The photographs have been curated over a period of five years, as Deepti Sasidharan, curator of the project, shares. "In what started off as a digitising project, eventually culminated into I Am Courage. We sifted through 90,000 pictures of Mrs Gandhi, starting from her childhood. While the IGM Trust wanted us to only digitise these photos, we were so overwhelmed with the extensive data on our hands that we decided to bring it to the public."

300 rare photos
There are 300 rare photographs at display at the event ‘I Am Courage’.
Each is accompanied by snippets on the story behind them, unspool Gandhi’s emotions
The photographs have been curated over 5 years