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ShareShe learnt English from a milkman and went on totutor the two Gandhi scions, Priyanka and Rahul.Rani Solomon talks toKareena N Gianani about the Republic Day celebrations in 1950 and life ahead
At 4pm, Rani Solomon pushes open the YWCA gates and walks on to a bustling street in Andheri. The madding traffic does not daunt her.
Clutching a handbag and peering over her glasses, she deftly manoeuvres her small, 5ft frame through the rush, walking to her tuition class nearby. It is difficult to keep pace with her brisk walk.
Solomon has been a teacher allher life and admits that it's the only thing she sees herself doing. She moved from Delhi to Mumbai in 2004 with stories to last a lifetime.
"I don't mean to brag, but I am the eldest of the nine seniors at the YWCA and yet most active. Why do you think they ask me to hoist the flag on the Republic day every year? Ek lambi speech deti hoon aur zor se 'Jai Hind' bulvaati hoon...(I give a long speech and ask the crowd to shout out 'Jai Hind')."
Solomon vividly remembers this day back in 1950. It was a cold day which started with prabhat pheris and slogans.
"There was always some tension in the air after Independence, but that day made up for it all. I remember being locked up indoors during the curfews in 1947, shaking violently at the slightest noise. Schools and colleges were closed and we were terrified. The Independence celebrations came at a cost. It was celebrating Republic Day in 1950 that brought back some joy and pride..." she trails off.
Solomon pauses to wrap her shawl tightly around her shoulders and reveals more about her childhood and how she became a teacher.
"I was born in 1924 and my earliest memories are of my humble home with kutcha flooring, British women frequenting my father's tailoring shop and walking away with beautiful dresses." And she? "Oh! Those were not for me -- I grew up wearing the same frock size throughout school!" Solomon remembers how she ran away from her boarding school, much to her father's chagrin.
"Mine was a very orthodox family and girls 'weren't supposed to behave that way'. However, my father insisted that I learn English and caught hold of a doodhwalla (milkman) who knew the language!"
Solomon began her career as an English teacher in 1946 in Delhi at St Teresa's School and later taught at the Convent of Jesus and Mary School (CJM). Priyanka Gandhi was a student at CJM. Her most memorable stint as a teacher was with the Gandhi family in 1984.
She leans forward, excited, as she talks about the day she was requested to tutor Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi at their Delhi residence.
"A day before Indira Gandhi was assassinated, Rahul and Priyanka just missed being hit by a car near school. Sonia was terrified and on Indira Gandhi's insistence, I was summoned to tutor them in English at home."
When Indira Gandhidied, Solomon says she was distressed to see the siblings spend all their time locked indoors sans friends and picnics.
"Priyanka, then 14, found comfort in books and read Nelson Mandela, Premchand and Harivanshrai Bachchan. She had Indira Gandhi's poise and her empathy touched my heart.
She taught the servants' children under a tree, that girl!" exclaims Solomon with a fond smile. She remembers listening to Priyanka's thoughts about the underprivileged and was taken aback at the teenager's decision to sleep on a chatai on the floor because "millions in the country did so."
A young Priyanka would often ask Solomon ifshe found Rajiv Gandhi handsome and Solomon would pull her cheeks. "Priyanka adored her father and often dressed up in his suits, prancing around."
She wasn't the only one impressed. Solomon shyly admits she was mesmerised when he first spoke to her. "I will never forget the charm he exuded."
As the conversation steers to Rahul Gandhi, Solomon can barely contain her amusement at the "badmaash's" antics. "Rahul was a charming brat who was very friendly with the servants.
Once, Sonia Gandhi was worried sick when he went missing, only to see him coming back with his dog wrapped in a bedsheet. He narrated how he had climbed a tree and used the bedsheet to pull the dog up too."
Solomon says she would like to see Priyanka shouldering more political responsibility than Rahul. "She understood the masses, was well read and very inquisitive -- all that you need in an ideal leader."
Today, Solomon lives a fulfilled life and says she is thrilled that she is independent even at this age. She candidly explains how marriage never crossed her mind and she spent her youth teaching and bringing up her nieces and nephews.
"I am well looked after here and these are the best days of my life. And who says one has nothing to look forward to at 84? I still sneak down at midnight to catch the cricket score."
g_kareena@dnaindia.net
