India today remembers Indira Gandhi, the country's first and only woman prime minister, on her 42nd death anniversary. She led the country for more than 15 years across two terms and remains one of the most powerful and debated figures in Indian politics. On October 31, 1984, she was killed at her own home in New Delhi. Much is written every year about her big decisions, from the 1971 war to the Emergency. But among the papers she left behind is a small, personal letter to a school girl in Ludhiana, written less than ten months before her death. The exchange is preserved at the Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya in New Delhi. The question had a basis. As a young girl, Gandhi spent time at schools in Switzerland, including the International School of Geneva, before studying at Santiniketan and later at Oxford. Deepkiran also shared her biggest dream: she wanted to become India's prime minister. She asked Gandhi how she could get there. Despite her busy schedule, Gandhi replied within 2 weeks on January 10, 1984. She first wrote her reply by hand, though the letter that reached Deepkiran was typed. Gandhi did not offer a political roadmap. She said nothing about elections, parties or power. “To get to the top of any ladder, you have to climb rung by rung,” she wrote. Reaching the top, she explained, required sincerity, hard work and service. She then gave the young girl a piece of personal advice. “Personally, I would say that it is important not to ask things for yourself but to think what you can do for others and for your country,” she wrote. She ended the letter on a warm note, asking Deepkiran whether she liked her school. The reply was a deep reflection of Gandhi’s own childhood. When she was ten, she spent a summer in Mussoorie while her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, was in Allahabad. Nehru wrote her a series of letters explaining how the Earth was formed, how life began and how civilisations grew. These were later published as “Letters from a Father to His Daughter.” More than five decades later, Gandhi was the one writing to a curious young girl. Also Read: Humans Strike Back Against AI in ‘We Were Here’ The letters were found among the Indira Gandhi papers held by the former Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. They are now on display at the museum at the Teen Murti estate, Nehru's official residence, where Gandhi herself once lived. Her assassination came a few months after Operation Blue Star, the army action at the Golden Temple in Amritsar in June 1984. It was followed by widespread anti-Sikh violence across the country, in which thousands of people were killed. Little is publicly known about where life took Deepkiran after that exchange. But the letter she received remains on record. As the country remembers Gandhi today, the two letters recall a moment between India’s most powerful leader and a young girl with a big dream. Gandhi’s message to her was simple: Ambition alone is not enough. It needs steady effort, sincerity and a commitment to serving others. Senior Copy Editor at Times Network, Akanksha Arora covers Lifestyle, Culture and everything that falls under its big umbrella. When not writing, she ... View More