In the ultimate irony, the only way to explain the phenomenon of our most infamous 'foreigner' is to fall back on that 100 per cent desi culprit, karma, decides Bachi Karkaria, trying to make sense of the Sonia Gandhi saga

Looking back at the journey which culminated in mind-blowing May, you could call her Forster story, A Passage to India. But, a more apt title to borrow would be Naipaul's The Enigma of Arrival. That she has 'arrived' is now indisputable, yet how she made it remains as unfathomable. Sonia's story is as implausible as her prancing like a designer filly on Derby Day.

World mythology is laced with chance encounters that resulted in millionaires becoming monks and, more so, vice versa, but can you think of any happenstance that comes within challenging distance of a romance that started in a Greek restaurant in Cambridge and led to a homesick Italian language student heading the Prime Ministerial table of India.

Think about it. Not only did the girl from obscure Orbassano first have to meet Rajiv Gandhi, there had to be one reckless death and two assassinations in the same family to pitchfork Sonia Gandhi to her present position. So, in the ultimate irony the only way to explain the phenomenon of our most infamous 'foreigner' is to fall back on that 100 per cent desi culprit, karma. Swaraj is not only your birthright, Sushma!

As visibly Indian as the ikat she favours, she must marvel also at the sudden course correction on the most unkindest charge of all, that of being a 'foreigner'. To have gone through what she has and still be branded an outsider must cut like a salami slicer. But the day was still hers. The 'inner voice' turned mere EVM victory into moral triumph, saving Sushma's hair, but locking her jaw in apoplectic envy at so brilliant a coup de grace.

[Bachi Karkaria is national metro editor of The Times of India, with the mandate to change the way cities are covered by the Indian media. Her earlier job as group editorial director, Mid-Day Multimedia Ltd, involved content and strategic planning for print, Net and radio. Her professional specialisations are urbanisation and public health, notably AIDS, on which she is an internationally recognised authority.]