It was early 1984. Few primary school kids (Aam Bachche!) as usual crossed the backside of their school campus & entered the sprawling place called 'Feeld'!! Feeld was the sports ground (field) which to one of its end had a 'officers club' & to the other end was the DC office. Though the school campus had lots of trees & stone 'Dining tables & benches' this bunch of kids prefered the grassy ground in front of officer's club - or - the front verandah of the officer's club building it the son was too hot! The reason was they could play around in grass after eating the lunch quickly. Truly they were the original Trinamool kids ;-)
That day the sun was hot, so they were having lunch in the verandah. suddenly they hear sound of an helicopter & surprise its heading towards them. Soon the chopper lands 50mts away from them. From the chopper comes out a lady escorted by 4 men. These 4 are now heading straight towards the kids. The seven aam bachches are awestruck & have stopped eating - some stopped chewing wat was alredy in mouth, some stopped their hands full of rice midway!! ;-)
The lady & the men reach the verandah. One of the aam bachcha (yours truly) being good at general knowledge recalls who the lady is. The lady is now with the kids - all awe struck. She runs her hand over each head & cheek. She is saying somethings which kids were too awestruck to understand. ( also they were not smart as they were not brought up on horlicks, boost etc) ;-) The lady sits with the kids & asks names. The kids knew the standard answer to 'What is your name' - 'My name is .... '! She smiles, now resorts to feeding the kids. she took the spoon from my hand & fed me the upma that was in my tiffin box. My marwari friend was fed the ghee-rich chapthi by the same hands.
As this is going on the men try to ask her to move inside - she doesnt go inside, nor take the chairs that was brought out for her. She kept on speaking to the kids in English & another strange language ( now I know its hindi). I recall she asking each what do you want to become. I prompty said 'Inspector'!!!. This must have gone for 10minutes. Soon we see 2-3 ambassador cars coming towards us. Later we learnt that the men who were with her, managed to call the DC from his office nearby.
Once DC came, the lady sat on chair & began talking to him, we continued eating. In another 15 minutes , we had finished lunch, but didnt go to play, as we stood there watching this lady. Soon she was done with DC & ready to leave. Came again to us & kissed few of us on cheek, waved bye, asked us to study well & went back to the chopper & flew away.
Later after school, I returned home, kept my bag, went to play & returned around 6pm. I see an argument going on between mom and dad.
Dad: will people spread rumor just like that. I heard she was here for few minutes.
Mom: If she is coming here, wudnt there be announcements, public meetings
Dad: There are also people who saw an helicopter flying low & landing
Mom: Helicopter fly even without her, remember they are also used to railway survey ( that raillink is still not happened!!)
I intervene & tell my parents that I was there when the chopper landed & all of the above story. I confirm it was THE lady my dad refered to. Once I confirm mom also agrees she indeed came here(she trusted her son!). That was the first time I was able to bring peace (& an end) in a husband-wife argument ;-)
after few months news papers report the death of the lady, the nation mourns - so do the seven aam bachche who were there when she landed due to some glitch in the chopper & resumed once it was fixed. She was on her way to somewhere else.
THE lady was Former prime minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi, one of the aam bachche was yours truly who went on to grow to be THE Aam Aadmi ;-)
P.S: today is death anniversary of Indiraji, may her soul rest in eternal peace.
After Thought: Today when I look at a bleeding India, I am of the opinion that its due to leadership. Who was the last leader who captured the attention of whole nation & commanded respect everywhere? Today every state has chota-mota netas who are going fanatic & separatist. Its time India needs a leader of impeccable character, someone who can hold the nation together! As far as I know Rajiv Gandhi ( may his soul rest in peace) was one such capable candidate. I wish if only these two had lived another 10-15years, India woudnt be in this kind of polarised state.
