Let’s Talk

The White Dove was flying high and was trying to fly still higher and faster. The White Dove wanted peace or may be was running from someone. As the White Dove looked behind, there were Crows with ugly faces and they all were wearing same hats. The Crows had in their hands some pieces of coal. The White Dove flapped faster and wanted to vanish from the dregs of the ‘society’. But in front of the Dove were some Doves who wore similar hats but these doves were all Black and there were too many of them. So theses Black Doves might have submitted to these Crows, White Dove thought. Suddenly the White Dove metamorphosed into an Eagle and started hunting them down, one by one, first the Black Doves and then the Crows. The Eagle was feeling the triumph but then he felt a heavy paw on his head and then similar attacks from the Big Animals and the Eagle was down. The Big Animals were also all black and wore hats similar to the Black Doves and Crows. The Eagle was writhing in pain and cursing them all and at the sight of this I woke up.

What a dream, I thought. At a drilling site, 40 Km away from the Base Complex (Agartala), in the hottest afternoon of the season, I was taking a nap in the cab. I heard distant voices of some agitation which is kind of endemic in the states ruled by communists. I neglected them and went to take another nap. After some time those distant voices were now crystal clear and the villagers surrounded my cab. I woke up as a new born baby wakes to the new world, completely uninterested and disgruntled. I looked around and they were shouting “Band karo Band Karo, Engineer ko Jail me band karo”. There were around twenty odd people some having sickles and some having axes in their hands. At first I wanted to join them and thought this would kill this boredom. But it didn’t take me much time to see that whenever they said “Engineer ko band karo”, they were pointing towards me. So in plain words I was that engineer whom they wanted to see behind the bars and I wanted to join them,wtf!.

I stepped out of the cab, graciously and decently, and I asked them politely “What is the matter? How can I help you people?” There was a sudden uproar as if they understood all of what I said.(they were tribal people and knew nothing but Bangla). Then a few middle aged men came forward and among them one man was ‘Sarpanch’ of that village. He seemed to me a decent guy but then he started speaking. He started introducing himself and that was the most f**ked up introduction I had heard, till that time. “From the age of 16, I started smuggling across the Indo-Bangla border”, he declared. What a great achievement, I thought. “I smuggled hashish, charas, ganja and later on humans. I got highly infamous and was caught various times but each time I was released, you know why? I still have several cases pending in 19 police stations but I am still free and I am ‘Sarpanch’ of this village. You know why?”

I panicked, “I… I have no clue, Sir” “Because my people respect me and love me and that is why I discarded all that shit and entered into politics and this is my first step as a ‘Sarpanch’. My name is Subhash Majumdar. So when people came to me to seek help regarding this land where ONGC wants to drill a gas well, it is my responsibility to help them”.

In the meantime I had called twice to my boss and he said it was not a big thing. “This happens now and then with ONGC’s Engineers”, he assured me with this. ONGC didn’t tell about this at the placement presentation, I recalled. “The site is disputed and you were sent to see how the things can go wrong so this would be your first hand experience and you are ‘Young Blood’ and you can handle things well”, my boss said. ‘Young Blood’! So you will screw me whenever you like because I am ‘Young Blood’

“Sir, we can talk and resolve this matter very peacefully”, I suggested humbly to ‘Sarpanch’.

“ONGC bought land from us and my fellow villagers are still to get their compensation. They have to go daily to SDM(Sub-Divisional-Magistrate) office to beg for their own money because ONGC says that they have disbursed the fund to the SDM’s office”, he continued “and now it has been around 4 months and these poor people are going to die and that would be because of you.”

“Because of me? I don’t have your money, in fact due to some SAP malfunctioning I did not get my own salary for two months and I think we can protest collectively”, I wondered. But I knew how this land acquisition formality goes on and tried to explain it “Sir, actually ONGC has taken this land on lease so the state administration has to be involved. We take this land for three years and give the entire compensatory amount immediately to the SDM’s office. Now it’s up to them to give it to the concerned people. So technically ONGC has no role to play but still I assure you that I …”

“Do you know how hard it is to maintain a family with seven children?” he asked giving some serious look on his face. I said nothing. “You would never know how to parent seven children with few yards of land, ehh??”, he questioned me rhetorically and stood there as if I were to answer it really. “Yes! I would never know because I think I will use condoms and they are cheaper than maintaining this army” but I remained silent, of course I could have answered but somehow I felt that I wanted to live. “So you wanted to talk and resolve the issues, right?” ‘Sarpanch’ said and I nodded and I thought I have won them psychologically and I was kind of happy because I thought I have handled this situation in a very admirable manner. “Let’s go to the police station and talk Mr. Engineer” he said and then a police car appeared with 3-4 constables and they came to me and said casually “Let’s go”. The agitating villagers started yelling again “Band karo Band Karo, Engineer ko Jail me band karo”.

I thought its not that bad to be at Police Station. Obviously it is not a preferred place to initiate a dialogue but there was no other option. So I went. As soon as I entered that police station, I realized that it was not the same as shown in Bollywood movies, the prison cell was uglier and worse than what we have seen. The prison cell was a long gallery with prisoners locked up on the left side and it was all too dark inside the prison cell and there was a horrible smell all around but this was really a well maintained police station with a chick at the reception.I walked to the reception to tell her the entire situation but then I saw my boss coming out from O.C’s office and he was trying to suppress his laugh. “What a good experience for you” and he winked and he told me to go home,matter will be resolved by these people.

“Go home and enjoy”, my boss said.