IAS memories: talking aloud

Lok Sabha (1996).  Upon reaching the constituency allotted to me, for about three days I went around visiting various polling stations in order to ascertain their location, spaciousness and suitability. 

I was provided with the services of Mahipal Singh (not his real name), a local officer, as a liaison officer.  In a particular village I decided to speak to the mukhiya for his opinion on the polling arrangements. 

I had to wait in front of his house as he took considerable time to dress properly in order to make himself presentable, while Mahipal kept on taunting him.

During the course of our discussions, the mukhiya told me that everything was all right and that he had no suggestions to make.  However, when I was about to leave, he suddenly remembered something and requested me to wait. 

He went inside his house and came out with the village map.  With the help of the village map he explained to me that during earlier elections there used to be a polling station at the gram panchayat office, which  had been shifted to another site during the assembly elections the previous year. 

This had resulted in some of the voters having to walk 5 to 6 kilometres to reach the new Polling Station.  He wanted the status quo ante to be restored.  All this time he was talking in a distinctly loud voice. 

I told him that I would convey his concern to the  district magistrate for such action as he would like to take in the matter, before getting into my car and proceeded to the next destination.

Once inside the car, Mahipal Singh told me that for a mukhiya to have a copy of the village map meant that he was a trouble maker.  He further said that I should not mind the loud tone of the mukhiya since in the villages in Bihar people generally spoke in a
loud voice. 

As a matter of fact, Mahipal said, conscious of my official status, the mukhiya had considerably toned down his normal pitch. 

Mahipal then took to talking about various facets of Bihar's social and cultural life with great enthusiasm.  Inside the  car, with the windows rolled up due to the summer's mid-day heat, the loud pitch of Mahipal's own voice was  more jarring than the articulation of the mukhiya in the open air. 

As my patience wore off and my ears could not take it any more, I had to subtly make him stop talking from time to time by pointing out some scenic features of the landscape outside, making it necessary for him to look out and observe in silence. 

But he would, time and again, return to describing, animatedly and in graphic details, the nuances of Bihar's rich cultural heritage.  He had a post-graduate degree in Indian history !

I returned to the constituency for my second visit lasting about 15 days.  In spite of his loud ways, I had taken a liking to the young Mahipal who, in a way, represented the cream of Bihar's state civil service. 

This time, however, he was put on active election  duty and I had another officer to accompany me. Rajendra Kumar (again, not his real name), my new companion, met me with a vacuous smile and a cloying grin at Patna airport. 

He spoke in a peculiar, of course Bihari, accent and his enunciation was a little fuzzy.  He too had considerable difficulty in following my UP-wallah Hindi as well as English accent. 

His general concerns were also of a different nature.  He very excitedly described to me a run-of-the-mill village pond, saying in the end that it was 'circled'.  In the beginning I used to request him to explain his point; later I started looking out of the window, the moment he tried to make an interesting observation in a loud voice.

In short, we had a great time talking loudly at each other for about two weeks.  Another colleague, also on election duty with me, not only started 'talking aloud' but even had the television volume in his room raised to a level which was distinctly uncomfortable.

Upon my return from, when I was relating to my wife a particularly exciting event of the trip, she interrupted me, at one point, to ask: ''But, why do you have to shout?'' 

Earlier, ever since our marriage, that was the question that I used to put to her.