When Sonia Gandhi Chased Away A Palmist: He Made A Prediction As He Ran

Picture this. A man is waving an imprint of someone's palm on a piece of paper at a woman, telling her he can tell the future. The woman does not quite appreciate the idea.

He is insistent. She chases him out, yet he says something while scampering out that turns out to be true. A comical scene which, years later, would sound like an omen of tragedy.The woman here is Sonia Gandhi, and the episode is etched out in her memoir, 'Belonging', which came out on November 10.The palmist who had entered the Gandhi family's Delhi home in the late 1970s predicted that Sonia's husband Rajiv Gandhi, and not his younger brother Sanjay Gandhi, would one day become prime minister.The episode took place at Bungalow Number 12 on Willingdon Crescent -- in a part Sonia calls "Baara Number days".

Indira Gandhi moved there with her family after losing power in 1977, into a four-bedroom house vacated for her by family friend Mohammad Yunus.