As chief minister Mamata Banerjee walked into the hallowed greens of the 117-year-old Calcutta Club, she did not go straight to her seat.
Instead, she walked straight up to the audience. Her hands folded, she walked around different corners of the 3,000-strong audience, warming up to everyone and treating them like old friends. It would be hard to tell that the last time she was at the venue was in 2009, then a firebrand Opposition leader threatening to oust the Left Front from power.
Kamon aachen Didi (How have you been, Didi)? Apnar pa kirom achhe (How is your leg)? Haantchhen toh aager moto (Are you still walking like you used to)? were some of the questions that people in the audience asked her.
It was only after a good seven-eight minutes that she came back to her chair in the front row before going to the dais to deliver the keynote address at the Sister Nivedita University presents Calcutta Club The Telegraph National Debate 2024.
The audience lapped up everything she had to say, bursting into applause and rolls of laughter.
Away from the who’s who Calcutta Club audience, Mamata had many other admirers. Like the band of club waiters who lined up on the balcony, listening in rapt attention to her. Some of them video-recorded her, as did many members seated in the audience.
On her way out, the club president, Abhijit Ghosh, introduced her to the waiters and other staff of the club, calling them the “lifeline” of the institution. Mamata paused for a couple of minutes to take a group picture with them. As she left, the waiters were agog. “Ami toh didir parar chhele (I am a boy from her neighbourhood),” said one of them.
If her actions were endearing, her speech was warm too.
“I cannot speak good English. Because in our times, our medium was Bengali. But I am proud to say that we studied there... I must say that I don’t belong to the elite class. Sometimes... they don’t like me. But I like them. I can’t speak good English. That also I like,” she said.
The audience, from front to back, responded with a loud cheer, a show of support that took many even in the elite Calcutta Club by surprise.
“Her English has definitely improved a lot over the years,” said a woman in the audience.
A couple had arrived just minutes before Mamata started speaking. They were headed towards the rows in front. But a policeman in civvies stopped them and asked them to go a few rows back. The two were not amused. “Ato barabari biroktikor. Amra ki goonda (Such high-handedness is irritating. Are we goons)?” the woman said while walking back.
Some 25 minutes later, the same woman could not stop laughing as the chief minister talked of her principal political opponent in her inimitable style.
“If you give ration, the Prime Minister’s photo is there. If you give a Covid vaccine, his photo must be there.... Only and only one person. That means there is nobody else in the country, except only one man. I don’t have any personal allegations against him. We have courtesy. We respect all the political leaders. But I have never seen in my life so good a Prime Minister....”
“I have seen so many Prime Ministers.... But I have not seen so cute and so good a Prime Minister,” she said.
“Cute, cute, she just said cute Prime Minister,” an elderly woman kept exclaiming as she laughed with others, almost not believing what she heard.
“She (Mamata) is a real cutie,” said another woman.
As Mamata walked out, a group of women almost broke off the security cordon and requested a cop to take a picture of them with the chief minister.
Flummoxed, the cop was wondering what to do when a nod came from the chief minister. Picture taken, as Mamata walked away, the group returned to their seats smiling.
