When Dikshit Revealed Her Childhood Ambition

The Governor gave several glimpses into her past when a group of 125 students, participants of the summer camp ‘Mambazhakalam’ conducted in the city, visited Raj Bhavan on Sunday.
When Dikshit Revealed Her Childhood Ambition

After her defeat in the Delhi Assembly elections last year, former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit may be having a tough time nursing her career back to peak form. But in doing so, she seems to have reminded herself of her childhood ambition. “When I was your age,” Dikshit, who is now Governor of the state, told a group of children on Sunday, “I wanted to grow up and become Florence Nightingale.”

 In fact, the Governor added, she’d wanted to become a good many things but never a politician. “In college I wanted to be a government officer, but I was lazy so I ended up marrying one instead,” Dikshit said. “At one time I wanted to become a writer, and a painter at another. But I never wanted to become a politician.”

 She was later persuaded, she said, to join politics, without knowing anything about it, when former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had asked her.

 The Governor gave these glimpses into her past when the group of 125 students, participants of the summer camp ‘Mambazhakalam’ conducted in the city, visited Raj Bhavan on Sunday afternoon.

 During the interaction, students asked her questions on  various topics, mainly the differences she found between Delhi and Kerala.

What is your opinion about the culture of Kerala, which position - the CM of Delhi or the Governor of Kerala - did she find more lively, what similarities did she find between the two places, were some of the questions the Governor found herself answering.

 “Delhi is a much more cosmopolitan and modern city which I hope you all will get to visit one day, while Kerala is beautiful whose culture is one of the best in the country,” Dikshit said.

 Asked in which sphere of development she would give importance to, she answered, “To the empowerment and uplift of women. I also hope that before I go, the metro system will come to Thiruvananthapuram as well, like it has already come in Delhi and is coming up in Kochi.”

 To another question on whether she considered politics a good career choice for women, Dikshit said, “Why not! It is a tough, challenging life but one that more women need to come into.”

 ‘Mambazhakalam’ is the summer camp organised by Vyloppilly Samskrithi Bhavan every year since 2009. It came to a close on Sunday with Health Minister V S Sivakumar inaugurating the valedictory session.

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