26th  Nov

My goodness in today’s paper there was a cartoon of a woman bulging in all direction stepping on to a weighing machine that was breaking apart.

Today’s declared ‘The world obesity day’. Eeeks, the papers seem to follow me and my overweight self around…Why only a woman? Don’t they make obesity to be a gender specific problem? Why not show those pot bellied men on the cartoons instead? I remember there was once a DG with a huge belly who was often photographed as the archetype of the ‘well-fed cop’. This gentleman was very fond of eating and his every whim was attended to by the officers lower down in the hierarchy and also those who had an axe to grind.
  
Sidd, Puru’s friend and junior often would say that in his village in Haryana they had a saying ‘Feed the Brahmin till he chokes’ this has been loosely translated from his colloquial Hindi that had a far more pungent affect. He had fallen foul with the afore- mentioned DG. So he was always hovering around the top boss with a plate piled with kebabs, tikkas, fish fries and other calorie dense delicacies while the Punditji carried on drinking and smoking. In the vain hope of pleasing him (the fat DG); or finding him choking on the food.

Sidd was thin to the point of being a prototype of the overworked and underfed cop. He was a fussy eater and he was a constantly prone to anxiety attacks that whittled away whatever he had eaten. Why am I so keen to record Sidd’s likes and dislikes?
Because Sidd had shown a partiality to Sanjali my kid sister years back…
 
Siddaheman was as his name pronounced him – pure gold. He came into our lives as a young livewire probationer of Puru’s. He was tall fair with light brown eyes that smiled often. Sanjali a good ten years younger to me was spending her summer vacations with us. She had just finished her second year in college in JMC Delhi University and had acquired all the foppishness of her age. But it made her even more attractive living in remote town of Savoli.
 
So every evening we would have musical get-togethers. Sidd was good at mimicking the local folk singers style of singing the popular Hindi film songs. It would set Sanjali into peals of laughter. She had a good voice and had been training with Guru Gyaneshji for several years. I would play the Sitar and for sometime we would forget the pressures of Puru’s job.
       
I had liked Sidd and truth be told hoped that a marriage would work out for this baby sister of mine. Another IPS officer in the family would not be a mean achievement.
‘Sanju’ was the shortened name given to her by Sidd was not unresponsive either. Puru also gave his tacit blessing.
We hosted a formal farewell for Sidd the usual guest list included the Collector and his family, a local doctor and the manager of the cement factory and his wife. Sidd was going back to Hyderabad to complete his second phase of his training. Sanjali’s college vacations were coming to an end. She went around with a dreamy look in her large brown eyes and a soft smile on her lips. That evening was perfect. Even the mosquitoes also decided to let us off for that night. Sitting in the garden bench away from the other guests both looked so much in love.

I never read the little ‘rags’ that are circulated under the guise of evening newspapers. They are normally blackmailing outfits run by local small time goondas. But a bundle of Shyam samachar was lying on the verandah making an untidy heap. I opened one rapidly and was shocked to see a newspaper report on how artfully scheming we two sisters were! This paper was circulated in the town of Savoli. It was alleged that I had trapped Puru into marrying him and now was hoping to catch this Sidd for my younger sister. Making me feel unclean and filthy.

The cutting was sent to Hyderabad as well as in Rewari where Sidd’s father was a teacher in the Government College. The damage was done. Things came to a head as Baba died suddenly and my Mama didn’t have the energy or will to pursue Sidd’s parents.
Why did the ‘rag’ print such malicious lies? Much later I discovered in one of my Ladies’ Club meetings on oath of secrecy from the rather gossipy wife of the ADM(Additional District Magistrate) that Puru had bashed up the reporter of the ‘rag’ on account of some report of the SP taking bribes in recruitment.
Now as we all know the laws of defamation are very weak, so it’s better to settle scores this way. Apparently that fellow’s candidate had been rejected!

Glossary
1. goondas…anti-social elements