Politics

This is a pair of current students, plus a new one, the young man on the right. He was recruited this morning, and we are sending his brother, 9th standard, to our sister school a ways down the street. We had an amazing morning, going hut-to-hut. This is my absolute favorite part of the job. We talked about the new headmistress, the new school building, and summer school (starts Tuesday).

But let me say a thing or two about Friday night. I met my first politician, a Member of the Legislative Assembly, Mr. Reddy. This man is the city-wide voice of the Telegu laborers and hut-dwellers. You'd think this would be a great meeting, right? I'm working to build a government school for a great number of children of laborers, so no worries. Well...

There was a misunderstanding. The bureaucrat working on land issues was told by our wonderful big poobah bureaucrat (who has truly saved this project) to get us more land. We need an assembly area and a preschool. The land next door, we thought, was secured for the school. Well, it seems the land next door, purchased illegally, was purchased by someone who knew Mr. Reddy. The MLA. YEAH, that isn't good.

So the low level bureaucrat (yes, his name is ALSO Reddy) went down the street a bit to find more government land for the school. There is a small piece, about 40 sq yards, occupied by laborers and their huts. On April 18, the bureaucrat marked it as government property then left. In the front, left hut lives that darling baby Said and his family. (Said is all set to get an operation on his club hand, don't worry.) Twice Said's very upset parents approached me, once on Thursday and once on Friday, to ask me to find out what was going on. I just told them not to worry because I had a meeting with that bureaucrat at 2 PM on Friday. We would immediately tell this dude there is no point in building a school for these children if we are turning out their parents from their homes!

The last time I talked to them was was around 11 AM on Friday.

At noon, the Jubilee Hills police unit, the same ones who visited the neighborhood on December 29, came in and tore down most of the huts. Baby Said's mommy prevented her hut from being torn down by threatening to light herself on fire! En mass, the entire body of Mastan Nagar laborers approached the MLA, Mr. Reddy, to address this situation. That was at 1 PM.

At 2 PM, my meeting was delayed until around 4 PM. At 4 PM, Kalpana and I met with the bureaucrat, but we didn't know the police had come to the neighborhood and the huts were already destroyed. The bureaucrat didn't tell us, then he told us to see the MLA at 7 PM.

At 5 PM, I went to get a root canal done (lovely), then met Kalpana at 7 PM at the MLA's office. Wow, everyone was there! EVERYONE! All the Mastan Nagar laborers, all the mommies and daddies. They stood or sat in the moonlight outside of the office. Some sat inside in the poorly carpeted, greasy waiting area. They all looked at me with kindness, but I knew they were upset. Then, stage right, in walks the lower level bureaucrat, straight into the MLA's office. They were all very respectful towards him. I thought it would be more like the WWF where the crowd boos and pulls "thumbs down," but there was no tension.

Finally, Kalpana and I were ushered in, past the guard with the machine gun. As usual for all politicians everywhere, the MLA launches a tirade. We couldn't even tell him we were building a government school! Or that we didn't want that land! When he paused for breath, Kalpana -- who has family connections in the Congress party that pre-date Independence and is from a long line of lawyers and judges -- spits out "WE DIDN'T WANT THESE HUTS TORN DOWN!" We don't want this land, we want the land next door!

Sunshine broke out, the MLA called our Mastan Nagar crowd in, everyone was all smiles. I even got to play with Baby Said.

The huts have to be reconstructed. That will be part of my job this week, penance for not moving more quickly on this. All last week I was rushing and I brushed them off. I spoke to Baby Said's family again today, they were ticked and let me know it. I learned the Telegu word for "Sorry."