Leila Kabir Fernandes almost didn’t make it in time to witness George Fernandes being sworn in as a member of the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, August 4. When she had met him on the Friday before that—her “fifth meeting” this year with her estranged husband—she told him she wanted to be there for the swearing-in this time. “I wasn’t present on the three occasions he took oath in Parliament as a minister. I was away, fighting for India’s democracy abroad, when he was sworn into the Morarji Desai cabinet after Emergency was lifted. I deliberately stayed away when he entered the VP Singh government and then the Vajpayee cabinet after that.”

By the time she reached his home, 3 Krishna Menon Marg, on Tuesday, George had already left for Parliament, but Leila caught up with the moment in the House. “Why did I go? Because this wasn’t his moment of glory. Because I see him fading away. It sounds trite, but George is a shadow of himself.”

She wanted to be there for her ailing husband, she says, on behalf of their only son, Sean, and the newest member of the Fernandes family, Ken, who will complete six months in a few days. Leila is flying down to her son’s home in the US for the ‘annapraashan’ ceremony on August 15.

While rummaging for little pieces of the past that she always carries with her for Sean, Leila has found a small card, yellowed with age, that she and George sent out to friends to announce the birth of Sushanto Kabir Fernandes—Sean was the name he would give himself later—on January 10, 1974. It was the year George led what came to be known as the “world’s biggest railway strike”. The baby was due on January 14 but there was a strike and the doctor said the hospital would be shut down, so he had to be brought into the world four days early.

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