North, non-North

Dusk is settling down on April 21 when I walk into the city club, spot my colleague Praful and make a beeline to his table. 8220;How are yo...

Dusk is settling down on April 21 when I walk into the city club, spot my colleague Praful and make a beeline to his table. 8220;How are you?8221;

8220;Wish I were from the South8221; he groans.

8220;What makes you yearn for the South?8221;

8220;Haven8217;t you seen the edit page article by T.V.R. Shenoy in The Indian Express?8221; he asks.

8220;I did.8221;

8220;Mr Shenoy asserts that he had not heard anyone 8212; from those who hold power or those who drop in from across the border from time to time 8212; ever claim kinship with someone from South of the Vindhyas. He buttresses his case by asking whether during the heady days of the visit of President Musharraf anyone made even an oblique reference to shared roots with the East or the West or the South? North is North and all others are Non-North; and, if I may parody Kipling, the Twain shall never meet.8221; Praful who started life as a teacher of English before joining the multinational and becoming my colleague has enough words to power an argument.

8220;Aha,8221; I decide to let him have his say.

8220;Well, have you ever looked at the ground reality? If you had, you would have realised that the East has more reason to groan than the South or the West, for the East is the only region that has been left out in the division of spoils,8221; he pauses.

8220;Those are strong words,8221; I protest over the tinkling of coffee cups and platefuls of biscuits and bowls of milk and sugar and also spoons.

8220;But true,8221; Praful reaches for a biscuit, holds it tentatively close to his mouth and adds, 8220;Remember, twice did leaders from the South hold the high office of prime minister. The West had their man in Morarji Desai. Not once has a Saikia or a Bordoloi or a Chatterjee or a Roy or anyone else from the East gotten anywhere near the high office.8221;

8220;The high office was held out on a platter to him, but he declined the offer,8221; I remind Praful, before adding, 8220;Maybe, Mr Basu did not want to take away the major grouse of the East. Haven8217;t you read J.B. Priestley? He once said that he grumbled his way through life. He grumbled in season and out of season too. May be, Basu wanted the people from the East to grumble, with good reason, that not one of them ever held the high office of India8217;s Prime Minister. Thus has he ensured that the people of the East are not deprived of a valid reason to grumble,8221; I find a smile part Praful8217;s lips and realise that his agony has abated a bit.