Mamta Kalia

notion of this sort of turmoil, which had
seemed rather feeble and insignificant
compared to one’s rebellious and counter
aggressive nature. In the beginning I was
not scared of transfers or of ministers.
This continued even after marriage. Even
when our daughter was born there were
no major problems. We were always
mentally prepared for transfers— Ambala
to Gurgaon, Gurgaon to Sirsa, Sirsa to
Faridabad, Faridabad to Hissar, Hissar to
Kurukshetra, Kurukshetra to Rohtak –
always ready to be sent anywhere. As
SP I suffered a number of transfers but
there were no major problems…But when
transfer orders came within two months
of getting my daughter admitted to a good
school, I was jolted, angry, felt helpless…and
for the first time I had sleep disorder…Now
my son was about to be admitted to a
good school and transfer was hanging over
my head like the sword of Damocles…
The crime rate in Haryana, once
considered a comparatively peaceful and
well off state, was going up very fast.
When caught, almost every offender
managed to get someone to phone the
authorities on his behalf. If a strong,
pressurizing phone call came even before
the case came up for hearing, sometimes
it came to nothing. Many times, officers
at the police station ‘solved the case at
their own level’, the officers did not even
get to know about it….And how was this
SHO of the Sadar Police Station involved
in the Jamalpur case?
I should have gone to that village on
an inspection trip today. I did think about
it, but had to go to the local Government
College as the chief guest on the occasion
of an inter-college debate competition. Dr.
108 :: April-June 2010
Ranbir Singh who had been my classmate
in Ramjas College, teaches there and I
could not refuse him. I too experience
a sense of freedom and ‘change’ on such
occasions. After the competition, when
refreshment was being served in the college
hall, the SHO called on my mobile and
told me that they had arrested the offenders
in the Jamalpur case, who happened to
be three brothers….
During the debate competition, I
remained almost as free of tension as I
am while reading a good book. The topic
was also very contemporary and a burning
one – in the opinion of the house ‘In
Haryana the greatest problem facing the
state is the deteriorating ratio of men
and women’. Some participants had argued
for the topic while others were of the
view that unemployment, dowry system,
poverty, the increase in population,
alcoholism, superstition, shortage of basic
resources like electricity and water for
irrigation, suicide by farmers etc. etc. as
well as a major rise in the crime rate
are even bigger problems. If one can control
those, the deteriorating male-female ratio
will possibly get all right by itself. This
meant that one section of participants was
looking at the deteriorating male-female
ratio as a result of other problems, while
the other section considered it the main
reason of a number of other problems.
Every participant considered this problem
grave but it was argued whether this was
the greatest problem or not. A girl student
who spoke for the motion was awarded
the first prize. Listening to many of her
arguments, I was reminded of the team
of American researchers which had come
to my house for a ‘talk’ last year. I also