Different Strokes with Kapil Sibal. In an exclusive interview with Hindustan Times, Congress leader Kapil Sibal talks about the two times he fell in love, his passion for poetry and paintings and his entry into and journey in politics.

Sibal lost his first wife Nina to cancer. He later married Promila. Sibal and Nina met in college and hit it off during play rehearsals of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.

Sibal credits two politicians for his foray into politics: Narasimha Rao and Lalu Yadav. Narasimha Rao encouraged him to contest elections in 1996, which he lost. But within two years of that, Sibal got into the Rajya Sabha with Lalu Yadav’s support.

Sibal recalls how his son was dead against his joining politics. “He went on a hunger strike to dissuade me because he feared that like Indira Gandhi I would be assassinated,” he says. Different Strokes is a weekly interview based show by Hindustan Times which captures the lives of politicians, artists and celebrities from a different prism.