Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi's memoir 'Belonging: A Journey of Love', released on 10 November 2026, recounts a peculiar encounter with a palmist at the Gandhi family's former Delhi residence that initially drew laughter — but later took on a haunting resonance following a string of political tragedies. The prediction, made decades ago, was that her husband Rajiv Gandhi — and not his younger brother Sanjay Gandhi — would one day become Prime Minister of India.

The 'Baara Number' Days in Delhi

The incident dates to the late 1970s, when the Gandhi family was residing at Bungalow Number 12, Willingdon Crescent, New Delhi — a period Sonia describes in the memoir as the 'Baara Number days'. Late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had moved her family into the four-bedroom house after losing power in 1977; the residence had been vacated for her by family friend Mohammad Yunus.

At the time, Rajiv Gandhi was employed as a commercial pilot and had little interest in politics. His younger brother Sanjay Gandhi was widely regarded as Indira Gandhi's political heir apparent, making the palmist's declaration all the more improbable — and, to those present, faintly comic.

The Uninvited Palmist and His Prediction

Sonia recalls in the memoir how the palmist entered their portion of the house without permission and refused to leave despite her protests. She writes: 'One day, a fat man dressed in white forced his way onto our side of the house and began calling out to me, brandishing a paper with the imprint of a palm...I didn't believe in astrology, I told him. I asked him politely to leave -- I had no time to waste, I had work to do, I knew my past, and I was not interested in knowing my future.'

When she 'flew angrily at him to chase him off', the palmist turned and shouted as he fled: 'Nahi, nahi, Sanjay nahi — aapke pati Rajivji ek din pradhan mantri banenge!' (No, no, not Sanjay — your husband Rajiv will become prime minister one day!)

The moment became unexpectedly amusing when Sonia found that Rajiv had already engaged with the same man. She writes: 'Then I saw Rajiv, laughing heartily, with the imprint of the palmist's ink on his palm. He'd been waylaid by the astrologer and humoured him, thinking it was a great joke. I rushed to my room and tried to calm down, but burst out crying instead.'

Tragedies That Gave the Prediction New Meaning

Sanjay Gandhi died in a plane crash in June 1980. Four years later, Indira Gandhi was assassinated in October 1984, and Rajiv Gandhi was sworn in as Prime Minister within hours. According to the memoir, he accepted the responsibility despite Sonia's tearful appeals against his entry into politics. His reported response to her: 'They will kill me anyway.'

The memoir also recounts an ominous moment during Rajiv Gandhi's 41st birthday celebrations in August 1985, when the family received news mid-dinner that Akali leader Harchand Singh Longowal had been shot dead in Punjab. Sonia writes: 'I couldn't share what was going through my mind, that this was a tragedy but also a bad omen. Why on Rajiv's birthday — was that just a coincidence, I wondered, or a warning?'

10 Janpath and the Shadow of Superstition

The memoir revisits the couple's move to 10 Janpath on 5 February 1990, where Sonia Gandhi continues to reside today. Several of Rajiv Gandhi's colleagues had reportedly advised against the choice, calling the property 'inauspicious'. Behind the rear gate was a mound believed to hold an elephant's grave; opposite it stood the grave of a Sufi pir. The couple dismissed the concerns: 'Neither he nor I were superstitious and laughed it away,' Sonia writes.

Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in May 1991 — just 15 months after moving into the residence — lending yet another layer of retrospective significance to the episodes Sonia has chosen to record. Throughout the memoir, she maintains that she was not superstitious, even as she acknowledges that certain events made her pause and wonder whether coincidence could carry deeper meaning.

The memoir's release offers a rare, intimate window into the private world of one of India's most consequential political families, and is likely to draw renewed public attention to this era of Indian political history.