It's not at all hard to reconcile the two things if you organize your time intelligently. Even when my sons were little, I was working.

My father was a statesman, I'm a political woman. My father was a saint. I'm not.

I said that my father was not a politician. I, instead, think I am. But not in the sense of being interested in a political career - rather in the sense that I think it necessary to strive to build a certain India, the India I want.

I examine the consequences later, when a new situation arises and I then face the new situation. And that's it.

I'm not ambitious. Not a bit.

As my father [Javāharlāl Nehrū] said, you have to keep an open mind, but you have to pour something into it - otherwise ideas slip away like sand between your fingers.

I've always been able to do what I wanted. On the other hand, my mother was. She considered the fact of being a woman a great disadvantage. She had her reasons. In her day women lived in seclusion - in almost all Indian states they couldn't even show themselves on the street.