Ringside view

Duty ‘struck’
JUST when they were through with election duty and had chalked out travel plans with their booking agents to enjoy a break,came this bolt from the blue. All officials belonging to Class II and above,have been asked not to go on leave and not to leave the headquarters until August 31. That pours cold water — literally and otherwise — on their vacation plans because by then the rainy season will be in full bloom. Giving the reason,an IAS officer says that this was necessary to complete the pending works that were put on hold thanks to the Model Code of Conduct and the election work. Now,that’s a double whammy!

Scribe turns speech controller
A VETERAN Gujarati journalist has made his way to a position in the Congress party,where he can control a pair of its spokespersons,who themselves are not on talking terms due to the unhealthy race for speaking first on behalf of the party. “My job is to see that no half-baked stuff reaches the media and that the two behave in a decent manner and do not rush with just about anything as the official party statement,” the person said. Of course,this will also rein in the two spokespersons whose internal difference cross the boundaries of Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan in Kocharab. One should hope that this should bring in some amount of sobriety and decorum.

Divide and rule policy
TALKING of the Congress party,it is now a known fact that its office houses two press-rooms. One is on the first floor and the other — the special one for top journalists — is on the second floor. Those,or whose publications do not matter much,need not climb the additional stairs; neither do they enjoy the snacks nor have the privilege of watching some television news. Those of the intellectual kind may go upstairs and hold prolonged discussions,which may become raw material for their columns. As for the press notes or news,the party anyways sends them via fax. So,if one has to gauge the category of a journo,one simply has to visit the Congress office any fine evening!

Uncrowned,but men rule still on
WOMEN might be touching new heights in contemporary Indian society,but the traditional mentality of ‘male dominance’ does not seem to be changing,at least at the rural level. Recently,one of the reporters — while doing a news story in the interiors of a village in Gujarat — enquired about the name of the village sarpanch. Now,although it was later known that the particular village has a woman sarpanch,the villagers named her husband as the sarpanch. As the reporter clarified that it is the woman who is the sarpanch and not her husband,a villager said,“What’s the difference? It is the same thing.” And all the hullabaloo on women empowerment continues.

— Contributed by Parimal Dabhi and Tanvir A Siddiqui.

Off Tangent

The home that was…

Life,for many,always seems to be unfair. One peek into the past churns out all the memories,but for Jamnaben,the road down the memory lane is a clean slate. At the ripe age of 70,her silent life screams for memories to come back. She always keeps her bag packed,for she yearns to go home. Just that she doesn’t know the way back.

Through decades,Jamnaben’s story has been passed on like a legend in the Ansuya Leprosy Hospital in Vadodara. The inmates say she is the oldest in the hospital,the lone survivor in her family after a flood in the early 70s. The flood had washed away her family and then her memory. Somehow,she had found her way to Ansuya. “Many years ago,she had mentioned the name of her village and was taken there to reunite with her family,” said a young nurse. But the villagers did not recognise her,and the place she had pointed out as her home,was a barren land.

Today,the patients form the only family Jamnaben is left with,and Ansuya,her only home. After the closure of the hospital last week,with her new family members being taken to other places,she now spends her days moving around the new hospital room with her amputated feet. “We don’t know where we might be tomorrow morning. We might not see each other again. But our only concern is Jamnaben. We are the only ones she is left with. Even in her silence,we can feel her muted confusion in this new place and her dilemma on where she might be shifted next,” said Dhuriben,a patient.

For now,Jamnaben knots her cloth bag again,for the third time,keeping it ready to head for home (?). But then she just stands there trying to remember her way back… — Debarati Basu