Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto would turn up the background music whenever her private conversations with Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi moved towards politics, apparently to prevent their discussions from being overheard.
The extraordinary recollection appears in former Congress president Sonia Gandhi's newly released memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, which offers intimate glimpses into India-Pakistan relations, the influence of Pakistan's military establishment and the personal warmth that persisted between people on either side of the border.
Recounting a visit to Islamabad in 1989, Sonia describes a private dinner hosted by Benazir Bhutto for Rajiv and herself at the Pakistani prime minister's residence.
The atmosphere was informal. Both prime ministers were young, and both had inherited enormous political responsibilities after losing a parent to political violence.
Rajiv's mother, Indira Gandhi, had been assassinated in 1984. Benazir's father, former Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, had been executed in 1979.
The two leaders also shared a tragic destiny that neither could have foreseen. Rajiv was assassinated in 1991, while Benazir was killed in 2007.
Sonia recalls that the conversation at dinner began with friendly exchanges. But whenever it moved towards political matters, Benazir increased the volume of the background music.
Sonia interpreted the gesture as a warning that someone might be listening to their conversation.
"Clearly there was an absence of trust between the newly elected leader and the military administration," she writes.
The episode provides a rare personal account of the constraints facing Pakistan's civilian leadership, even during an informal gathering with a visiting foreign prime minister.
Benazir had assumed office in December 1988 following the end of General Zia-ul-Haq's military rule. She was Pakistan's first woman prime minister and had come to power amid expectations of democratic renewal.
Rajiv Gandhi's visit was regarded as an opportunity to improve relations between the two neighbours, which had fought three wars since Partition in 1947.
Sonia recalls the excitement surrounding the visit, which she describes as the first official visit by an Indian prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru travelled to Pakistan in 1960.
But the private dinner suggested that the optimism surrounding the return of civilian government had not eliminated the deep influence of Pakistan's military establishment.
Warmth Beyond Political Boundaries
Despite the political mistrust, Sonia's recollections of Pakistan are marked by affection for its people and recognition of the cultural bonds connecting the two countries.
She describes Pakistanis as welcoming, curious and eager to engage with their Indian visitors.
"Everyone was welcoming and eager to converse and ask questions," she writes.
During the visit, Sonia and Priyanka Gandhi toured Islamabad, which she remembers as a modern city with elegant buildings, parks and tree-lined avenues.
She also met Pakistani women activists who spoke candidly about patriarchal restrictions and the social problems confronting women.
Their concerns reminded her of similar challenges faced by women in India.
At an exhibition of textiles and traditional clothing, Sonia was struck by the resemblance between Pakistani fabrics and Indian materials, designs and techniques.
She found familiar patterns in everyday life, from clothing and food to language and social customs.
"At every step we were struck, as many visiting Indians are, by how much is recognisable between our ways and theirs," she writes.
The shared cultural inheritance also figured prominently in Rajiv Gandhi's public remarks during the visit.
At a banquet, Rajiv spoke of the spontaneous sense of recognition and affection that Indians and Pakistanis often experienced when meeting one another, particularly outside their respective countries.
He described an "instant mutual recognition" that emerged when people encountered one another beyond the constraints of official politics.
For Sonia, the visit reinforced the belief that the two societies had far more in common than the antagonism between their governments suggested.
She reflects on the opportunities that might have opened up had the two countries been able to overcome their differences.
"Instead of armaments and wars, how much could be done for our people on both sides," she writes.
Yet she acknowledges that such reconciliation remained a distant prospect.
Her account thus presents two contrasting realities: the suspicion surrounding political power in Islamabad and the easy familiarity she experienced among ordinary Pakistanis.
Memories of Frontier Gandhi
The memoir also recalls a family journey to Peshawar to attend the funeral of Abdul Ghaffar Khan, popularly known as the Frontier Gandhi.
Ghaffar Khan was a prominent Pashtun leader of the nonviolent freedom movement, a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi and an opponent of the 1947 Partition.
Sonia describes his political commitment, his years of imprisonment and exile, and the personal relationships he maintained with India despite his difficult relations with successive Pakistani governments.
She recalls the respect he commanded across the region, noting that even the opposing sides in the Afghan conflict suspended hostilities to allow his funeral to take place.
There is, however, a chronological discrepancy in the memoir. Sonia places the account of the funeral after her description of the 1989 Islamabad visit and refers to it as occurring a month later. Ghaffar Khan died in January 1988, more than a year before the visit to Benazir Bhutto.
The recollection nevertheless adds another dimension to the family's historical connections with the region, extending beyond diplomatic relations to personalities who had participated in the shared struggle against British colonial rule.
The 1971 War and Bangladesh's birth
Sonia's memoir also revisits the 1971 war, which resulted in the separation of East Pakistan and the creation of Bangladesh.
She describes the political crisis that followed the victory of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Awami League in Pakistan's 1970 general election.
Although the party secured a majority in the National Assembly, the political and military leadership in West Pakistan resisted transferring power.
Sonia recounts the subsequent military crackdown in East Pakistan, the atrocities committed against civilians and the mass displacement that forced millions of refugees into India.
She remembers Indira Gandhi returning deeply distressed after visiting refugee camps in West Bengal.
The conditions in the camps, where displaced families struggled with inadequate shelter, food and medical care, left a profound impression on the Indian prime minister.
"She had to help them; she had to act," Sonia writes.
According to the memoir, Indira undertook an extensive diplomatic campaign to draw international attention to the humanitarian crisis and the dangers posed by Pakistan's military operations.
Sonia recalls her mother-in-law's disappointment with US President Richard Nixon and his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, whom she regarded as unsympathetic to India's concerns.
The possibility of war also created anxiety within the Gandhi household.
As tensions mounted, windows were covered for blackout precautions, outside lights were switched off, and the family prepared for possible Pakistani air attacks on Delhi.
Indira wanted Sonia and her young son Rahul to move to the presidential residence, which was considered safer.
Sonia refused.
"I would remain with my family, and we would face together whatever happened," she writes.
The memoir also recalls the January 1971 hijacking of an Indian Airlines aircraft to Lahore by two Kashmiris, an incident that further strained relations between India and Pakistan.
The passengers and crew were released, but the aircraft was subsequently destroyed.
Sonia says the episode created fears that Rajiv, then working as a commercial pilot, might himself be targeted by hijackers.
He was temporarily removed from flight duties as a precaution.
The account provides a personal perspective on the anxiety surrounding the 1971 crisis, which Sonia experienced as a young mother living in the household of India's prime minister.
Kargil and Cost of Confrontation
The memoir returns to India-Pakistan tensions during the 1999 Kargil conflict.
Sonia recalls how Pakistani troops occupied strategic heights on the Indian side of the Line of Control in the Kargil region.
She criticises the government of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for what she considers failures in border surveillance and patrolling before the intrusion was detected.
She attributes the deaths of Indian soldiers to "the government's negligence in patrolling our borders."
Her account reflects the Congress leadership's criticism of the Vajpayee government during the conflict, even as the Indian armed forces fought to regain the occupied positions.
The episode also illustrates the recurring pattern of diplomatic engagement being overshadowed by military confrontation.
Vajpayee had travelled to Pakistan earlier that year in an effort to improve bilateral relations. The Kargil conflict subsequently brought the two nuclear-armed neighbours into another dangerous confrontation.
Sonia also discusses the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, carried out by militants belonging to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba organisation.
She recalls the devastation caused by the coordinated attacks, which targeted hotels, a railway station and other public locations.
The violence left scores of people dead and hundreds injured, deepening tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad.
Sonia describes the particular horror she felt when visiting victims of terrorist attacks and communal violence, where suffering resulted from deliberate acts rather than natural disasters.
The memoir later turns to the February 2019 Pulwama bombing in Indian-administered Kashmir, which killed 40 Indian paramilitary personnel.
Sonia questions the Indian government's handling of intelligence warnings and security arrangements preceding the attack.
She also discusses the Indian airstrike inside Pakistan that followed and the nationalist atmosphere generated by the military confrontation ahead of India's general election.
These passages reflect her political assessment of the government's handling of the crisis rather than an independent investigation into the events.
Shared History, Divided Politics
Sonia Gandhi's recollections of Pakistan reveal the contrasting experiences that shaped her understanding of the neighbouring country.
Her memories of Benazir Bhutto's private dinner suggest the constraints imposed by Pakistan's civil-military power structure.
Her encounters with ordinary Pakistanis, however, recall a society whose language, food, clothing and customs appeared deeply familiar.
The memoir also traces the repeated interruptions to efforts at reconciliation, from the legacy of Partition and the 1971 war to Kargil, militant attacks and subsequent military confrontations.
The contrast is particularly striking in a book that also recounts the Nehru-Gandhi family's ancestral connections with Kashmir, its Kashmiri wedding traditions and Sonia's memories of a Valley transformed by decades of conflict.
While Belonging: A Journey of Love is primarily a personal memoir, its accounts of Pakistan offer an unusually intimate perspective on relations between two countries whose people share much of their cultural inheritance but whose political histories have repeatedly driven them apart.
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