was a special moment for 72-year-old Rajamma Vavathil, a retired nurse, when Congress president Rahul Gandhi hugged and held her hand here on Sunday, 49 years after she took him in her hands as a newborn at a Delhi hospital.
Ms. Rajamma could not contain her happiness and excitement at meeting Mr. Gandhi, whose birth she had witnessed. The Gandhi scion hugged her and held her hand when Ms. Rajamma and her family came to meet him at a guest house here in the morning.
Amidst his busy schedule, Mr. Gandhi on a thanksgiving visit to Wayanad spent some time with Ms. Rajamma’s family. The Congress chief obliged some party workers and their kin by posing for photographs with them.
As a trainee nurse, Ms. Rajamma had taken care of Mr. Gandhi at Delhi’s Holy Family Hospital after his birth on June 19, 1970. The Congress chief also greeted Ms. Rajamma’s family members, including her husband and grandchildren, who waited for hours to meet him.
When Ms. Rajamma recalled her memories of witnessing his birth and taking him in her hands as a newborn, Mr. Gandhi listened to her attentively with a smile on his face.
Before leaving, Ms. Rajamma gifted home-made jackfruit chips and sweets to the Congress chief, who, in turn, promised to meet her again. An excited Ms. Rajamma, later, said she was really happy to meet Mr. Gandhi after all these years.
When a controversy over Gandhi’s citizenship came up during the Lok Sabha election campaign, Ms. Rajamma had said she was one of those who were on duty at the Holy Family Hospital, when the Congress chief was born.
She had also said she was among the first few to take newborn Rahul in her hands.
After taking voluntary retirement from service, Ms. Rajamma returned to Kerala in 1987 and is now settled at Kalloor, near Sulthan Bathery in Wayanad.