For most people 30 seconds isn’t a long time. For most people 30 seconds with Sonia Ghandi would be about 30 seconds longer than they expected to spend and 25 seconds longer than the typical meet-and-greet.
Peter Wolff and I spent our first 30 seconds with Ms. Ghandi in complete silence.
It’s Peter’s birthday today, so I’ll wish you, the happiest, Peter. And now my pre-apology – I feel compelled to tell this story for some reason.
It was 2007. The driver dropped us at the front gate to Ms. Ghandi’s house, where we were relieved of everything in our pockets – wallets, passports, keys, phone, probably our pocket lint as well. Not unusual for this type of meeting.
We were ushered into her living room to wait, by an odd man who didn’t talk much, other than to ask questions by making statements (for example – You like the weather today. You came from New York). This also was not unusual. We had met in a variety of Indian living rooms and spent a fair amount of time with odd aides while waiting.
We sat on a couch, Peter nearest to the chair where Ms. Ghandi would sit, and me next to him. The man sat in the empty chair next to Ms. Ghandi’s. There was no small talk, just awkward looking about the room and making random comments to break the silence (“That’s a nice flag.” … reply “It’s India’s flag” etc.). We muttered to each other a bit as well. This was also not unusual.
Our agenda was simple. We wanted to request her support on a few things we needed for the Fortune Global Forum, and invite her or her son Rahul to meet with TimeWarner CEO Dick Parsons when he came to India in November. Maybe 5 minutes worth of business. Not unusual. We had done this together many times. Peter, many scores of times more than I.
She walked into the room. You likely know that Sonia Ghandi is Italian born, and took the Ghandi name from her late husband, long-time prime minister, Rajiv. For about 80 years, the Ghandi family was dynastic in its control of Indian politics and she was revered as the current kingmaker.
We stood, greeted her. Sat down. Then …
Nothing.
We sat there. We looked at her. She at us. We looked back at her. She at us.
I realized that for the first time in countless meetings, Peter – who had lead delegations to meetings with the Chinese Premier, met with the South Korean president, Japanese prime minister and who knows how many captains, kings and celebrities over the years during his tenure at TimeWarner under Steve Ross, Gerry Levin, Dick Parsons – Peter who had introduced me to people before whom I was tongue tied — Peter was a little bit tongue tied.
Needless to say, I also didn’t find a way to break the silence.
At last, he thanked her for seeing us. The aura of legend dissipated the more we talked. She was warm, friendly and straightforward (the latter part something with which we had become unaccustomed in India).
About 20 or 30 minutes later, we left. Back out to gather our things, and meet Deepak, who ran the office in India and our driver at the gate. We didn’t talk much.
Finally, Peter gave his evaluation — and solved the mystery of the 30 seconds:
“She’s very pretty.”
Happy Birthday, Peter — I choose to remember she was speechless too.