Rahul meets Kerala nurse who witnessed his birth in 1970

Kochi, June 09: Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who is in Kerala, on Sunday met Rajamma Vavathil, a retired nurse who was on duty at Delhi's Holy Family Hospital on June 19, 1970, when he was born.

Rahul Gandhi is on a three-day visit to his parliamentary constituency Wayanad. The Congress president earlier held discussions with the local representatives, party leaders and officials of the district and collected information on various pressing issues of the Parliamentary constituency, which is spread across the north Kerala districts of Wayanad, Malappuram and Kozhihode.

Today in Kozhikode, Rahul met Rajamma. The 72-year-old, who was still in training to be a nurse at the time of Rahul's birth, had claimed that she was among the first to take the infant Rahul in her hands.

"I was lucky as I was first among the few who took the newborn baby in my hands. He was so cute. I was witness to his birth. I was thrilled... we all were thrilled to see the grandson of prime minister Indira Gandhi," she had said in May.

Forty-nine years later, the "cute baby" is Congress president and a MP from Wayanad. And Rajamma, who now describes herself as "nearly a housewife", had said she couldn't be happier. She remembers the day well. Rahul Gandhi's father Rajiv Gandhi and uncle Sanjay Gandhi were waiting outside the labour room of the hospital when Sonia Gandhi was taken for delivery, Vavathil recounted. It's a story she often tells her family.

Vavathil, who completed her nursing course from Delhi's Holy Family Hospital, later joined the Indian military as a nurse.