New Delhi, July 20 -- I am a child of the Indira Gandhi era. Through my formative years, she was Prime Minister. Until 1977, it never occurred to me that men could aspire to this position. Consider what an amazing reversal this is in a patriarchal, misogynistic society-that a little girl thought that only women could lead her country. Of course, this was always with the chorus of Indian male voices saying derisively, "That woman (this or that) ." Even back then, I knew that tone was reserved for women-women drivers, women managers, women entrepreneurs and, of course, women Prime Ministers. No matter, as that little girl, I still wanted to be "that woman."

This book is not about "that woman." The title, Indira Gandhi and the Years that Tr...