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The Doctors Advised Me Not To Have Even One. My Health Was Still Not Good, And They Said That Pregnancy Might Be Fatal. If They Hadn't Said That To Me, Maybe I Wouldn't Have Got Married. But That Diagnosis Provoked Me, It Infuriated Me. I Answered, 'why Do You Think I'm Getting Married If Not To Have Children? I Don't Want To Hear That I Can't Have Children; I Want You To Tell Me What I Have To Do In Order To Have Children!'

-Indira Gandhi

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The Doctors Advised Me

Indira Gandhi

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The Doctors Advised Me Not To Have Even One. My Health Was Still Not Good, And They Said That Pregnancy Might Be Fatal. If They Hadn't Said That To Me, Maybe I Wouldn't Have Got Married. But That Diagnosis Provoked Me, It Infuriated Me. I Answered, 'why Do You Think I'm Getting Married If Not To Have Children? I Don't Want To Hear That I Can't Have Children; I Want You To Tell Me What I Have To Do In Order To Have Children!'

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Pursuit Of Happiness

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Women Sometimes Go Too Far, It's True. But It's Only When You Go Too Far That Others Listen.

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Being Prime Minister Isn't The Only Job In Life! As Far As I'm Concerned, I Could Live In A Village And Be Satisfied.

Popularity Is Not A Gurantee Of Quality.

I Am Proud That I Spent The Whole Of My Life In The Service Of My People ... I Shall Continue To Serve Until My Last Breath And When I Die, I Can Say, That Every Drop Of My Blood Will Invigorate India And Strengthen It.

I Don't See Why We And The Chinese Should Have To Be Enemies.

Naturally, If The Americans Had Fired A Shot, If The Seventh Fleet Had Done Something More Than Sit There In The Bay Of Bengal...yes, The Third World War Would Have Exploded. But, In All Honesty, Not Even That Fear Occurred To Me.

I Suspected [richard Nixon] Was Very Pro-pakistan. Or Rather I Knew That The Americans Had Always Been In Favor Of Pakistan - Not So Much Because They Were In Favor Of Pakistan, But Because They Were Against India.

I Don't At All Care Who's On The Right Or Left Or In The Center. Even Though We Use Them, Even Though I Use Them Myself, These Expressions Have Lost All Meaning.

I Think One Should Do What Seems Right. And If What Seems Right Involves Danger...well, One Must Risk The Danger.

In Fact The Communists Gained Strength In India When The People Thought My Party Was Moving To The Right. And They Were Correct.

I Had Many Dolls. And You Know How I Played With Them? By Performing Insurrections, Assemblies, Scenes Of Arrest. My Dolls Were Almost Never Babies To Be Nursed But Men And Women Who Attacked Barracks And Ended Up In Prison.

I Like To Think I've Provided This Faith. I Also Think That By Providing Faith, I've Focused Their Pride. I Say Focused Because Pride Isn't Something You Give. It Doesn't Even Break Out Suddenly; It's A Feeling That Grows Very Slowly, Very Confusedly.

At First People Asked Us, 'can You Do It?' And We Kept Silent Because We Didn't Believe In Ourselves, We Didn't Believe That We Could Do Things. Today People No Longer Say To Us, 'can You?' They Say, 'when Can You?' Because The Indians Finally Believe In Themselves, They Believe They Can Do Things.

I Fall In Love With Anything I Do And I Always Try To Do It Well.

Falling In Love

What Good Does It Do To Remain Tied To An Ideology If You Don't Achieve Anything By It? I Have An Ideology Myself - You Can't Work In A Vacuum; You Have To Have Faith In Something.

Finally We Promised To Limit The Birth Rate. And This You Really Didn't Believe; You Smiled Scornfully. Well, Even In This Things Have Gone Well. The Fact Is That We Have Grown By Over Seventy Millions In Ten Years, But It's Also True That We Have Grown Less Than Many Other Countries, Including The Countries Of Europe.

[my Mother] Was The Oldest Of Two Sisters And Two Brothers, And She Grew Up With Her Brothers, Who Were About Her Age. She Grew Up, To The Age Of Ten, Like A Wild Colt, And Then All Of A Sudden That Was Over. They Had Forced On Her Her 'woman's Destiny' By Saying, 'this Isn't Done, This Isn't Good, This Isn't Worthy Of A Lady.'

We Should Not Mourn For Men Of High Ideals. Rather We Should Rejoice That We Had The Privilege Of Having Had Them With Us, To Inspire Us By Their Radiant Personalities.

You Must Also Understand Us - Always Undervalued, Underestimated, Not Believed. Even When We Believed, You Didn't Believe Us. You Said, 'how Is It Possible To Fight Without Violence?' But Without Violence We Obtained Freedom.

I See Nothing Wrong In Sterilizing A Man Who Has Already Brought Eight Or Ten Children Into The World. Especially If It Helps Those Eight Or Ten Children To Live Better.

The Old Need The Company Of The Young So That They Renew Their Contact With Life.

The Civil Servant Is Primarily The Master Of The Short-term Solution.

My Grandfather Once Told Me That There Were Two Kinds Of People: Those Who Do The Work And Those Who Take The Credit. He Told Me To Try To Be In The First Group; There Was Much Less Competition.

Life Is Always Full Of Dangers And I Don't Think One Should Avoid Dangers.

I Began To Associate With Mahatma Gandhi When He Came And Went In Our House - Together With My Father And Mother He Was On The Executive Committee. After Independence I Worked With Him A Lot - In The Period When There Were The Troubles Between Hindus And Muslims, He Assigned Me To Take Care Of The Muslims. To Protect Them.

Nowadays You Can No Longer Let Yourself Be Indoctrinated - The World Is Changing So Fast! Even What You Wanted Twenty Years Ago Is No Longer Relevant Today; It's Outdated.

At A Certain Point The Family Moved To Jaipur, Where No Woman Could Avoid The Doli Or Purdah. They Kept Her In The House From Morning To Night, Either Cooking Or Doing Nothing. [my Mother] Hated Doing Nothing, She Hated To Cook. So She Became Pale And Ill, And Far From Being Concerned About Her Health, My Grandfather Said, 'who's Going To Marry Her Now?' So My Grandmother Waited For My Grandfather To Go Out, And Then She Dressed My Mother As A Man And Let Her Go Out Riding With Her Brothers.

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