New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s newly released memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, has captured widespread public and literary attention—not only for its candid personal revelations, but also for a poignant, multi-generational family tribute embedded in its very design. The front and back covers of the 544-page book feature photographs taken exactly 60 years apart by two of the closest men in her life: her late husband, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, and her grandson, visual artist Raihan Vadra.
A Tale of Two Photographs
Published by HarperCollins India on November 10, 2026, the memoir’s front cover displays a striking monochrome portrait of a 20-year-old Sonia Maino, captured by Rajiv Gandhi in Turin, Italy, in 1966—years before she married into India’s foremost political family. In the book, Sonia describes the photograph as her “most cherished picture” with Rajiv, recalling his deep passion for photography, a hobby he inherited from his father, Feroze Gandhi, and honed by developing prints himself in London.
In sharp contrast to the black-and-white nostalgia of the front, the back cover features a warm, candid colour portrait of Sonia Gandhi clicked in New Delhi in 2026. Taken by her grandson Raihan Vadra (son of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Robert Vadra) alongside his fiancée and fellow photographer Aviva Baig, the image captures the Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson relaxed in a saree, wearing her signature glasses and a gentle smile.
Bridging Decades and Continents
Separated by six decades and 6,000 kilometres, the two portraits visually encapsulate the arc of Sonia Gandhi’s life—from a shy young woman in Italy who fell in love with a young Indian student in Cambridge, to the matriarch of the Nehru-Gandhi family and the longest-serving president of the Indian National Congress.
In the memoir, Sonia emphasizes that Belonging is a deeply personal account rather than a purely political treatise, chronicling her initial reluctance toward public life, her grief following the assassinations of Indira and Rajiv Gandhi, her private battle with cancer, and the enduring love for India that led her to call it home. Through the lenses of Rajiv and Raihan, the book’s covers quietly celebrate a family legacy of art, memory, and continuity.
