Kolkata confidential

What’s in a name?

Recently,at the Hul Utsav – a tribal festival to commemorate the death of legendary tribal leaders Sidhu and Kanu – organised at Sidhu Kanu Dahar at Esplanade,the CM was unable to get names of tribal leaders right. While the place was named Sidhu Kanu Dahar (Dahar means street),the Chief Minister mistook “Dahar” to be the name of a third tribal leader. She kept on saying “Dahar babu” (Mr Dahar) without realising her mistake even once. While officials and reporters gathered at the programme were having a hearty laugh,a senior state government official said: “I am not going to lose my job by correcting her now.” As the programme went on,“Dahar babu” kept cropping up now and then. Perhaps becoming a Chief Minister makes her immune to such mistakes.

Tense moments

Mamata Banerjee’s sudden visits and her untimely summons have created a tense undercurrent in state-run hospital officials and medical staff. When a series of infant deaths at a childrens’ referral hospital rocked the state last week,the first thing the staff were enquiring was the possibility of the CM visiting the hospital. Already in muddled waters over the infants’ deaths,senior hospital officials cut a sorry figure when a journalist enquired about the matter. Journalists on duty kept on receiving inputs about the CM’s possible visit to the hospital. The tension was evident when there was a false alarm about the CM being on her way to the hospital. The rumour spread like wildfire and reached the ears of a senior hospital official who seemed visibly nervous and shaken. He was heard telling a group of cameramen and reporters seated in his cabin: “I have my ill parents at home,‘she’ is coming now and since morning the ‘media’ has been behind my heels. Oh God! Why did I have to come today when this fate was awaiting me”.