It was 1997, the year India was marking her 50th year of
Independence. There would have been many celebrations of this momentous
occasion but only one unique observation of this historical timeline
stays on with me: a NGO based in Mumbai was taking about 250 young
people from India and across the world to places of India’s history and
future in a train specially reserved for the purpose! The announcement
was made on a popular cultural TV program (which we don’t see the likes
of now) called Surabhi beamed on Doordarshan and various other
newspapers. It was a happy moment when I got confirmation that I was to
be one of the said young people on the train that would ultimately
travel for 11 days across the country facilitating interactions with
people who were inspiring: Mark Tully, Abdul Kalam (then with ISRO and
who talked us then of the possibility of an Indian moon mission which
did become a reality!), Bunker Roy of Tillonia (married to Aruna Roy and
behind hugely successful rural enterprises, water harvesting, adult
literacy among others in Tillonia in Rajashthan), Kiran Bedi (much
before her controversial stint in Mizoram) and Anna Hazare who was known
at that point of time mostly for his pioneering work in Ralegan Siddhi,
a village in Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra.
The said rail yatra was mainly organized to instill in young people the
essence of leadership, innovation and social development. The routine
was that we would be traveling in the train non-stop till we reached the
places we were meant to be and then getting back to the train for the
night. So, there was an air of curiosity when we were told that we would
have an overnight stay at Ralegan Siddhi to meet a Gandhian who had
taken up rural conservation and community work. The villagers took us
around the place and we were told how small canals had been dug up to
generate water flow. But it was two things that impressed me greatly: a
school for juvenile children and the practice of Shramdaan or volunteer
work as a form of social charity. The school had classrooms but if the
children so wanted, classes would be held under the shade of trees in
the open. There were yoga classes for “anger management” while most
constructions in the village: the small dams, solar panels, wells,
places of worship were all built through Shramdaan.
In the
evening, we sat in a community hall and then, in walked Anna who spoke
of his “second life” (he was the lone survivor during an enemy attack
during an India-Pakistan war). We talked then mostly of philosophy and
working for social upliftment. Like many of my fellow yatris, we thought
nothing much about questioning his rigid stand against alcoholics (they
were beaten up, period) and I even piped in my two bit and told him how
Nishabandi women in Manipur were also doing the same! It would take me
some years to understand the concept of public health and harm reduction
and see that the greater crime of punitive measures on substance
abusers only marginalizes them and do nothing about addressing the
dependency. Anna Hazare’s activism against corruption started later and
one cannot say much of what happened in between. But personally, the
posturing Anna that one sees on TV (wagging fingers and dictating terms)
is a very different person from the Anna I met all those years ago. The
Anna then actually asked us young people on what we thought he should
incorporate more into his work in his village in terms of forest and
water conservation etc. The Anna one gets to see now refuses any kind of
disagreement with his thoughts and beliefs.
November 2000 and a
young woman called Irom Sharmila decided to fast to protest after 10
civillians were gunned down at Malom. My first reaction then (and I am/
not ashamed to own up to this now) was that it would be some token fast.
Some days later, there was the “fast against AFSPA till the act is
taken off” context and I thought that hers was an illogical/irrational
and totally crazy stand to take. I also shrugged it off as “some group
must be behind her” motive. I totally bought the “AFSPA is necessary
till there are insurgents” theory for quite a long time till my own
readings on militarism and armed conflicts around the world and conflict
resolution/reconciliation processes made me sit up and engage in some
serious questioning.
The first meeting happened in March 2009
during her customary yearly release. It was total chaos: there was a
meeting of over 50 odd woman journalists from all over the country
happening in Imphal and they all wanted to meet her. And then, there was
the usual local media attention too. The first meeting was more of a
brief sighting especially since I did not believe I needed to add my own
questions to the many that were being addressed to her.
The second meeting happened in a unique setting: something that I
have only shared with a few friends but one that can be let out in the
public domain now. January 2010 saw me with very high fever after a trip
to Bangkok and my Uncle, a doctor asked me to get a swine flu test
done. Since he was with Jawarlal Nehru hospital then, I went there.
Those who follow news would be aware that I was tested positive for
swine flu but much before that news broke, I was raising hell over the
state of the isolation ward at the hospital. What I did not want to call
attention to the media then was that while I was standing outside the
isolation ward with the face mask on, waiting for hospital staff to find
the keys to the room (they took about an hour and a half!) I saw a
familiar figure some 10 metres away from me. It was Sharmila Irom! My
heart plummeted inside me: here was this one person I wanted to talk
with and I was supposedly at risk of an infection that I could pass on
to her. I have a small face and the mask covered most of it and I saw
Iche Sharmila looking quizzically at me. I rolled my eyes at her and
hoped that she would not come near (I did not want to be responsible for
her health!). When eventually, my test results came in positive, I
wasn’t too worried about my own health (I did not take Tamiflu
medication) or my family (they did not have any fever) but I obsessively
kept an ear open for any news on Sharmila’s health!
In May 2010, I
got third time lucky and I had a long meeting with Iche Sharmila. I was
going along as a sort of translator for a journalist and writer. We
talked mostly of non-political issues: of her books and poetry we talked
at great length. And then she took both my hands and said solemnly,
“remember when you were at this hospital with your mask on?” And then
she laughed and told me, “you don’t know the amount of activity and
consternation that happened here after you left!” There was no air of
moral superiority following the status of icon-hood that has settled on
her: I was face to face with a unique person yes but also a normal human
being, a young woman kept in isolation but very aware of the world
around her.
End-point:
Many people have pitched Anna Hazare’s
crusade against corruption and Sharmila Irom’s stand against AFSPA. But
their stands are different and the battlefield totally apart from each
other. My own interaction with both of them happened at different times
and stages of their journey. But what stays on following my interactions
with Iche Sharmila are the little ways in which she is so much a person
than an icon. It is something that one does not get to see in other
people who take on the mantle of greatness.
