New Delhi:
"I decided to enter politics when my father died. I was on a train with my father's body and coincidentally it was somewhere around UP when I looked out of the window and saw hordes of people, all with an expression of loss on their faces. It's then I knew that as my father's son I had some responsibility," Rahul Gandhi had said.
And so began Rahul's political journey - from the train carrying his father's remains.
At every turn, he found the Congress eagerly awaiting.
The year 2004 perhaps best illustrates how much a desperate Congress at the time was looking upto the first timer for a miracle.
No doubt, there have been bloopers on the way.
But people who were close to Rajiv aren't too worried because they say Rahul has his father's touch to connect with the people.
"Rajiv was never one for protocol. He would just bring an old woman into the nook of his arm and say Ma what are you saying. I think some of that Rahul has. There is that same willingness to reach out, to include," says Mani Shankar Aiyer, Leader, Congress.
Last year, Rahul went a step further than his father.
"Elections are important. But what is more important is building the party, whether you win an election here or lose an election there is not really the measure, the measure is how your party is," he said.
He roped in an outspoken, former election official who began an exercise which most parties in India have bypassed - internal elections. His target were the youth wings.
"If we don't want to change things, if we are not decisive then the generational shift that people want will never happen," puts forth Sachin Pilot, MP, Congress.
And then there's his father's trait of backing the unfashionable. Rajiv pushed for the IT revolution and rural development. Rahul says his priorities are the youth and clean brand of politics. And Rahul may succeed for the same reason his father held out hope.
"He is someone who is untainted, someone who can offer a sense of hope. A certain sense of cleanliness which the middle class needs. He is a politician who has a geneaology but a politician who doesn't yet have baggage," says Shiv Viswanathan.
Rahul today has an advantage of time something his father may not have had.
Nobody in the Congress doubts that the prime minister's job is his. All he has to do is ask.
"I may be a product of the system, but that doesn't mean I can't change it," Rahul opined.
In terms of work, during his probation period in politics Rajiv too tried to go as much into peripheral India, learn hands on, rather than sit in an AC office and have people brief him. In fact he was in Midnapore when he got the news of his mother's death on the BBC radio transistor on the top of his car. And when Rahul is seen travelling as much as he does in the heart of India, there is almost a similarity of all the experiences his father underwent. But unlike his father and fortunately he did not suddenly have to get inducted into prime ministership.
Mani Shankar Aiyer was one of the back room boys who worked very closely with Rajiv Gandhi as the prime minister.
And for someone who has also had an opportunity to observe the young Gandhi from close quarters, the similarities are just too striking.