NEW DELHI:
Sheila Dikshit was quite fond of
Western music
since her youth and would sit near the radio waiting for her favourite songs to be aired and a few years later also developed a fascination for footwear.
Apart from these, reading was also a big passion.
Dikshit had mentioned about these in her autobiography "Citizen Delhi: My Times, My Life" published last year.
Sheila Dikshit during a session on ‘Book Launch Citizen Delhi: My Times, My Life’ during Jaipur Literature Festival (Lit Fest) at Diggi Palace in Jaipur in January 2018. TOI Photo by Bhagirath."Father was a member of the Gymkhana Club (of Delhi) and during my teenage years when we lived within walking distance of it, on Dupleix Lane, we would get a fresh lot of six books every weekend to last us until the next weekend. I devoured Enid Blyton's 'Famous Five' stories, Richmal Crompton's 'Just William' series and classics like Alexandre Dumas's 'The Three Musketeers' and Victor Hugo's 'Les Miserables'," she wrote.
FILE: In this photo dated Jan 10, 2019, Sheila Dikshit poses for photos after being appointed the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee chief, in New Delhi. PTIHer favourite books were Lewis Caroll's "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass, What Alice Found There" and the Sherlock Holmes series.
Friday nights, according to her, were reserved for an immensely popular western music programme called, "A Date with You", which played the latest songs.
FILE: UPA chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi (L) and Sheila Dikshit in Delhi. TOI photo by Anindya Chattopadhyay "Clustering around the radio, we would try telepathic experiments to will the radio jockey to play the latest Doris Day or Henry Belafonte records!" she wrote.
She also mentioned about her great craze for footwear.
"The shops coming up in Janpath, allotted to refugees from Pakistan who had initially spread out their wares on the floor of the corridors of Connaught Place, provided me a reprieve from the sturdiness of the two 'Bs' - Bata and Baluja! Those small shops sold eye-catching, flat leather sandals with straps in bright colours, at three rupees a pair," she wrote in the book published by Bloomsbury.
From her monthly pocket money, which was Rs 5 then, she saved enough over a period to buy several pairs in various colours and simple designs.
FILE: In this photo dated Aug 25, 1999 is seen then Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit with former finance minister Manmohan Singh and thespian Dilip Kumar during Singh's campaign for Lok Sabha elections, in New Delhi.She also loved watching movies and her first film in theatres was "Hamlet" in black-and-white.
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