premise: Varun and his estranged cousins are the grandchildren of Indira Gandhi, the former prime minister who was assassinated in 1984. Her two sons - Rajiv Gandhi, who became premier after Indira's assassination and Sanjay Gandhi who died in an aircraft crash while doing aerobatics - married women with very different personalities. Varun's mother, Maneka, widow of Sanjay Gandhi, is headstrong, voluble, and strident. Rahul and Priyanka's mother is the Italian-born Roman Catholic, Sonia Gandhi, who was widowed by Rajiv's assassination, was more demure as a daughter-in-law.
hypothesis: Indira Gandhi died doing aerobatics.