MOBILE IN BANDA

Day One: Two Mobile Jones and one Meera

An old person’s walking stick hangs, under an equally slanting Mobile Jone signboard, on what seems like a chowkish road in Banda in southern Uttar Pradesh. For a non-resident UP-ite like me, it is actually a welcome sign. Of trust in little things like leaving unguarded walking sticks outside locked doors.

The world often hears of this area as one of the many dacoit counties in the region, where a chain and lock on the simplest of things might feel normal. Or maybe in the time of mobile phones, who would have use of stealing this other older mobility now? There is a soft-spoken, self-absorbed amiability to the Banda air, quite typical of Eastern UP small towns. Yet unmistakeable to one who has inherited a grandmotherly gene from the region, such as yours truly.

This side of UP has both its straight shooters as well as those who never quite say what they mean. Something saree-clad veteran KL reporter Meera fills me in on, as we walk along, talking about deciphering what people really mean when they speak. This doublespeak, often lost on reporters who chopper in, with little understanding of local context. I sense there will be much to shed, excess woollens, being just one of them.

I’m here to work on some real time reportage inputs with Team Khabar Lahariya, in the midst of the UP Assembly election 2017. While Meera rehearses her first piece to camera for a story, a little girl returns from school and walks alone in a narrow, nearby alley. Can any outsider like me say, if this is trust or no choice/company?

Restful to even see this otherwise ordinary sight though, given the reality of the sex ratio statistics or the rape headlines, ever emerging from Bundelkhand. Just as reassuring to see Meera, totally lost in the job of the moment.

Tisha Srivastav, a part time editorial consultant with Khabar Lahariya sends in snapshots of her experiences in Bundelkhand reporting, with Bundelkhand reporters. This is the first of her series, around Banda town…