Jayalalithaa lived away from her mother from when she was 6 to the age of 10. While Sandhya was in Chennai earning a living as an actress, Jayalalithaa lived with her maternal grandparents in Bangalore. Sandhya would visit her on breaks from shooting.
Jayalalithaa described her longing: “When I slept with my mother as a kid, I would tie her saree around my hand. I would have the saree clutched in my wrist. My mother, without disturbing me, would take out her saree, replace it with another saree and leave. My mother would tell my aunt to wear the saree and lie next to me.”
Quality time with Sandhya on her rushed visits was rare. On one occasion, Jayalalithaa stayed up three nights in a row for a chance to tell her mother about an essay she had written at school. “The fourth day I decided that I have to meet my mother. In spite of everyone asking me to sleep, I slept in the drawing room. At 12:30 at night, after everybody had slept, mom came. When mother saw me she was surprised, woke me and said, ‘Why you are sleeping here?’ I told her I was up to see her and began to cry.
