What a five-year-old took away from Modi's stopover in Chandigarh
Okay. I think I've given this story appropriate distance. Distance from Narendra Damodardas Modi's stopover in Le Corbusier's Chandigarh on the 128th anniversary of the Franco-Suisse architect's birth.
But this is not about Corbusier or the multifaceted metropolis that sprung up from his doodles. Careless drawings that went forth to become the "Bible" for generations of brown sahib civil servants who have lorded over this city built adjacent to the old "Umbala-Kalka Railway Line".
This is about Arun Kumar Manjhi. He's a Chandigarh boy, all of five-years-and seven-months-old, the son of Sarju and Radhika Manjhi who came to find a future amid Corbusier's clutter from Sokorla, a district in faraway Jharkhand. An entire day's bus journey beyond Ranchi and "through Maowadi country," the couple says.
September 11 was a morning as important as it could be in the toddler's life. And no, Arun had no notion that the prime minister was coming to town.
The little fellow had been prepping hard. Radhika, a Class 10 graduate herself, had spent many afternoons to make absolutely sure her boy knew it all - counting the right way up and in reverse. Believe it or not little Arun also knew what came before and after 1043!
Arun was so looking forward to ace the very first arithmetic test of his life.
After all, the boy is a bit of a prodigy. Pushed by teachers at his earlier government preparatory school who said "this boy has promise", Radhika and Sarju pulled out their son to instead send him to a more expensive, privately-run school.
Sarju happily gave up (for his son's fees) a fourth of the monthly salary he earned as a domestic worker.
Unbeknownst to the little fellow, Mr Modi flew into Chandigarh - inaugurating a new air terminal, addressing doctors at the convocation of a local medical institute, handing over flats to poor people, and addressing a political rally in the city.
The city administration shut down schools. Even the local cremation ground was off bounds. A local TV journalist's 70-year-old father was taken into preventive custody to forestall a potential dharna against the prime minister. A Kargil veteran was not allowed to conduct the last rites of his dead son.
And little Arun was not allowed to go to his math test in school.
Of course the exam will be rescheduled. And Arun will ace it like he would have the first time. But there's a lesson he could have done without - that "prime ministers close schools".