smokerings

A friend from Mumbai asked me how things were. I groped for a befitting analogy, and off the top of my head said "She meant a lot to people.... sort of like Gandhi."

Will they eulogize her to Gandhian proportions? Gandhis dhoti, Benazir's ajrak, her gracefully draped dupatta, her almost deliberately hideous but unmistakeably modern suits. Gandhi's non-violent tactics and the subsequent massacre of Partition, her violent outbursts against the military and simultaneous dealings with them. Will she be Time's person of the year?

"They're trying to sideline her. They always have. These bastard men... they resented her power, her popularity." My mother was never a fan.

She was ruthless, calculating.... delivered a baby in office, witnessed the murder of her father, her brothers. She took advantage of every situation, she played the media, and charmed a superpower.

There will be another Bhutto. But I don't know if there will ever be another Benazir.