Kolkata: Congress president Sonia Gandhi who refused Prime Ministership heeding to her "inner voice" today (Nov 6, 2004) asked children to do so to remain true to themselves and to those around them.

"What I will tell you now may strike you as odd, you need not listen to adults given to speeches although we adults do it to make you learn how to live in life," she advised students at a gathering of schoolchildren and their principals at 'The Telegraph School Awards for Excellence, 2004' in Kolkata.

"But you need to be true to yourself. Only if you can be true to the inner voice can you be true to yourself and to those around you," said Gandhi on her first visit to the city after the Lok Sabha elections.

She said that the sight of young people filled her with hope because she saw them as symbols of energy, idealism, enthusiasm, frankness and the spirit to strive for excellence. "Such qualities, unfortunately, dull with age," she said.