The woman who stands poised to become the leader of Indonesia has a passion for cooking, gardening, flower-arranging and Disney films, her favourite being Beauty and the Beast, which she has seen 50 times.
A 53-year-old mother of four, she hates political debate, likes to sleep late and finishes campaign rallies by singing a popular children's song.
A university drop-out, she has lived much of her life with her husband in a quiet Jakarta suburb running a small chain of petrol stations.
These are not the qualifications one would expect for the job of president of the world's fourth most populous country and largest Islamic nation, but Megawati Sukarnoputri has one big asset that has propelled her to the brink of power.
She is the daughter of Ahmed Sukarno, the founder of modern Indonesia who brought unity to the vast tropical archipelago after the departure of the Dutch colonisers and who declared himself president for life, until ousted by President Suharto on the pretext of a communist coup.
As disillusionment with Suharto set in, Megawati was recruited as a political surrogate for her charismatic father, in the manner of other Asian women who were elevated in place of their fallen menfolk, like Corazon Aquino of the Philippines and Dr Wan Azizah of Malaysia.
It happened in 1987 when the Indonesian Democratic Party, a state-approved opposition grouping, decided to draft a Suharto scion to strengthen its appeal. Megawati wasn't the first choice: she was approached only after a brother and sister had refused.
But the matronly woman with the serene manner proved to be a big draw among Indonesians fed up with the corruption of the regime.
The following year, Megawati and her third husband, Taufiq Kiemas, became members of the Indonesian House of Representatives, the vehicle of managed democracy which gave political legitimacy to Suharto.
She posed no real threat until 1993, when she was elected chairwoman of the PDI and began to criticise Suharto on issues such as human rights.
The ageing autocrat clearly saw her as a dangerous focus for the resentment of the masses who yearned for the "good old days" of Sukarno, forgetting perhaps that the nation's founder had himself stifled political opposition and dismissed the legislature.
In May 1996 the government set a trap. It arranged for dissident elements of PDI to hold an extraordinary congress and elect a new leader. A riot broke out on July 27th, 1996, following their forced take-over of PDI headquarters in central Jakarta.
This was the beginning of the end for Suharto, who was toppled last year. Megawati and her supporters set up a new organisation, the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P) which drew massive crowds during the election campaign and is now surging ahead in the count. All this has happened without any forceful oratory or application of intellectual energy from Megawati herself. Once open to journalists, she has kept herself secluded in recent months.
When seven students were shot dead by soldiers in Jakarta in November, she made no comment, and a delegation which arrived at her doorstep to get her to speak out were told not to disturb her nap.
More recently, Megawati refused to participate in an election debate with other candidates on the grounds that it was "contrary to Oriental culture".
Her speeches were vague expressions of good will. "Get out of my house," she told scores of journalists who followed her home after she voted on Monday. "So how are you going to lead this nation if you don't even want to make a comment?" asked an exasperated Indonesian reporter. She made no reply.
Since the election, nothing more has been heard from Indonesia's political enigma who once said she learned about the poor from the children of the servants in her father's presidential palace.
As far as many Indonesians are concerned she doesn't have to speak. She represents a pluralist unity which they feel is the only hope for the country, and enunciating policy during the campaign could have been divisive.
She undoubtedly inspires deep affection as a moral force and has said that her capital is the trust people put in her, nothing else.
Megawati's drawing power is so powerful that the party has become little more than an electoral machine to secure her success. It may be paralysed, too, by deep splits between radical reformers and a coterie of generals who urge caution and national unity. Megawati has no time for talk of federalism and has said she believes the August 7th independence referendum in East Timor should be delayed as Indonesia must remain united.
On all such issues she can take guidance from her late father. Megawati does not deny stories that she has a kind of supernatural power which enables her to communicate with the great man.
