Indira Gandhi at the table

At the table of the Nehru family, as in much of North India, the meal is not divided into starter-main-dessert but served all at once on a large metal tray, the thali. Around a mound of rice and flatbreads, small bowls (katoris) simultaneously hold a dal (lentils), one or two spiced vegetables, a yogurt, a tangy condiment (achar or chutney), and sometimes a sweet. You mix and alternate bites as you wish, with your right hand. At Indira's home, raised in the Brahmin and Gandhian ideal of austerity, this thali remained simple and entirely without meat or fish.

The Nehrus were Kashmiri Pandits: beneath Indira's daily frugality lay a Kashmiri culinary memory where saffron perfumes both festive sweets and tea. This golden-red thread connects her everyday simplicity and the delicacy of her origins.