The last time Benazir Bhutto returned from exile to fight an election in Pakistan, I managed to get placed in her first-class carriage on the night train from Karachi, the commercial port city in Sindh province, to Lahore, the historic centre of the country's political heartland, Punjab.
Nobody slept that night. The train journey was to kick off Bhutto's national campaign for the November 1988 general elections, called after 11 years of authoritarian rule by the military strongman, General Zia-ul-Haq.
Zia had died when his Hercules C-130 aircraft mysteriously crashed soon after takeoff in August that year. The exact cause was never established, although a board of inquiry said the military plane had been brought down by sabotage.
Bhutto, though, described Zia's death as 'an act of God', suggesting an element of divine retribution. The military dictator had not only ousted her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, from power in 1977 but had also sent him to the gallows two years later.
Now Zia was dead, his successor as army chief had correctly gauged the mood of the nation and agreed to a general election, and Bhutto was setting off on a daring and uncertain journey to try and reclaim her dead father's political legacy.
It was an astounding and unforgettable 20-hour train ride.
At every station through the night, as the train slowly chugged across the Sindh countryside, Bhutto's specially reserved railway carriage, the rest of the train, the platform, its roof, everything, was besieged by tens of thousands of excited men chanting 'Zinda hai Bhutto!' (Bhutto is alive!).
The slogan was like a mantra proclaiming that the people were bestowing the father's political mantle on the daughter.
But the Bhuttos were feudal lords in Sindh, owning large tracts of land and maintaining their thrall over the peasantry. Sindh was also the stronghold of the Pakistan People's Party, or PPP, created by Bhutto's father in 1967 to fulfil his political ambitions.
Could Benazir Bhutto generate the same excitement in Punjab, a province with more than half of Pakistan's population and from where most of the country's military and civilian elite emerged?
As the train entered Punjab, there was no let-up in the frenzy. If anything, the crowds were bigger and more boisterous. Now they were chanting a second evocative slogan: 'Charon subon ki zanjeer, Benazir, Benazir.' (Benazir is the link between all four provinces of Pakistan). Barely 35 years old and a political ingenue, she was being hailed as a national leader who could keep Pakistan united.
The people were also demonstrating that after 11 years of draconian military rule, they desperately wanted a return to the rough and tumble of democracy.
Bhutto won, and in December became not only the youngest head of government in any democratic country but also the first woman to lead an Islamic nation.
After Zia's death, she changed the title of a new edition of her autobiography, Daughter of the East, to Daughter of Destiny. Bhutto had arrived at the forefront of Pakistani politics with such adroitness that it did seem as if her rise to power was pre-ordained.
It was especially remarkable since during Zia's time, Pakistani society had been vigorously Islamised, and notorious laws enacted downgraded the legal position of women.
But just months after Zia's death, a woman had become Pakistan's prime minister. 'This is a cultural liberation,' a prominent commentator said.
Benazir Bhutto, though, had never been a part of traditional Pakistani society. She had a fairytale upbringing. Born into a wealthy, educated, westernised feudal family on June 21, 1953, the eldest daughter of Bhutto and his Iranian wife, Nusrat, was schooled in convents around the country before going to college abroad, first at Radcliffe at Harvard, and then Oxford University.
She first made a mark when she was elected president of the prestigious Oxford Union debating society in January 1977. In June that year she returned to Pakistan, hoping to join the foreign service. But her father vetoed it - he had bigger plans for her.
Zia's coup later that year put paid to her father's plans. Benazir was also imprisoned. She remained in jail for 61/12 years and was finally allowed to leave Pakistan in 1984, going into exile in London. The same year she faced another family tragedy - her younger brother Shahnawaz was mysteriously poisoned in Paris.
Much like in today's Pakistan, by mid-1986 pressure built up on the country's military ruler for a return to civilian rule, and Benazir Bhutto was allowed back into the country. While she waited for General Zia to call elections, Bhutto had an arranged marriage with Asif Zardari, the ambitious son of a Karachi businessman.
In retrospect, the marriage has proved politically costly for her. Her supporters blame Zardari for much of the misrule during her years in power. Like Cory Aquino in the Philippines, Bhutto could not live up to the high hopes engendered by her election. Her government was besieged by ethnic violence in Sindh and plagued by charges of corruption and constant squabbling with the opposition. She was dismissed in 1990 and lost the subsequent elections to her main political rival, Nawaz Sharif.
She was as belligerent in opposition as Mr Sharif, and returned to power in yet another election in 1993. Her government presided over a period of economic deterioration, and ethnic violence reached fever pitch in the financial capital, Karachi.
Relations with her family also deteriorated. Her other brother Murtuza returned from abroad to challenge her politically, with the tacit support of their mother, Nusrat. Though nothing was proved, when Murtuza was mysteriously murdered the blame was put on Bhutto's husband, Zardari.
Bhutto was again sacked from the prime ministership in 1996, and amid mounting charges of corruption and a fortune salted away abroad, she went into voluntary exile even as her husband was jailed. In the years since, she has lived mostly in Dubai and London.
But after nine years in exile, Bhutto is again preparing to return, hoping to recapture some of the lost political glory. Can she do it again?
Independent observers believe she can. 'The charisma around her and the Bhutto name still exists,' said Karachi-based political analyst Muhammed Ali Siddiqi. A recent survey by an American political institute has shown that Bhutto's PPP is still the most popular party in Pakistan.
This time, though, she must plot her return carefully. She held two secret meetings with General Pervez Musharraf in Dubai, after which she flew to Washington for consultations. The political situation in Pakistan is highly volatile and nothing can be predicted with certainty. But as things stand today, it's clear she will have to share power with the general. She seems agreeable, but wants General Musharraf to give up the army chief's post. She knows that as long as he remains both president and army chief, she will remain powerless as prime minister.
But Bhutto's game plan may be upset by the likely return of her old rival Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted from power by General Musharraf in 1999 and forced into exile.
Mr Sharif is bitterly opposed to any power-sharing agreement with the general.
Both General Musharraf and Bhutto are engaged in a game of brinkmanship. We will have to wait and see who blinks first. But one thing is clear - years in exile have in no way diminished Benazir Bhutto's steely desire for power.