MOBILE IN BANDA: DAY FOUR

Your Call is Waiting, Reporter Rani

Chasing politicians in party offices, in election season is more often than not, an unacknowledged your call is waiting, for a reporter. Meera navigates this calmly, but with the requisite determination that is a hallmark of a driven reporter. But an amusing or horrific moment is never far in election mela wait, is it? In the hall next door, there is a group of Samajwadi Party workers in their very red Nehru topis as a pappu soniye vote kar le film copytrack version flings raucous oorja into the gathering. The man holding the mike breaks into the most original local defence one can imagine, on the Mulayam-Akhilesh fracas that "once" was,‘Pyjama purana sahi, naada toh naya hona chahiye." (And then promptly breaks into a naara).

While he is saying this, the smaller office we are waiting in, is seeing a quintessential halwai moment. Mithai boxes of packed food are being stacked up for all the cheerleaders present, even as a hidden portrait of Ram Manohar Lohia looks down rather sternly. 

A middle aged man walks in periodically, to check if the stock of dabbas is intact and therefore not stolen, as the candidate we have all been waiting for, arrives. The political meva of Samajwadi Party rests on many things which haven’t all reached the folk at Banda. Neither good roads, nor the Lucknow-loving journalistic claim of the Helpline for Women. 

Some of the Dalit all-women reporter troops of Khabar Lahariya have received laptops, but don’t have much of electricity to charge it with, in their often rural homes. Classic, I know. 

Tisha Srivastav, a part time editorial consultant with Khabar Lahariya sends in snapshots of her experiences in Bundelkhand reporting, with Bundelkhandi reporters. Catch her live-tweeting some of the action here!