56 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019
SCHIZO-NATION
ANUJA CHAUHAN[email protected]M
y children grew up in Sheila Dikshit’s Del-
hi. Much before Narendra Modi’s Mann Ki
Baat became a thing, it was her calm, grave
voice they heard on the radio, every year during the
exam season, exhorting them to stay calm and write
their papers well. “Apne parche achhi tarah likhna,
bina kisi tension ke likhna.” It was a small, but very
fresh and thoughtful initiative for those times, and it
made them fond of her.
She is rightly credited for giving Delhi the only
thing it can be proud of in recent times—the Delhi
Metro. And, as Bombay and Bengaluru bumble
about trying to get theirs up and running, an un-
grateful populace realises what a mammoth task it
actually was, and how deceptively easy she made
it look. She also privatised the
distribution of electricity, got buses
and autos to use cleaner fuel, and
fittingly, chose to be cremated at a
CNG crematorium.
In the good old days, she could
be spotted enjoying the city-state
she ruled—at the movies, at the
melas, always paying for whatever
she bought, a small stately figure,
hazel eyes shining in appreciation
of all things tasteful and aesthetic.
Once she zoomed in on a pair of
bright red, three-inch-high wood-
en block heels I was wearing, exclaiming, “I used
to have heels like that! Are they back in fashion?”
When I told her they most certainly were, the slightly
gap-toothed grin flashed. “Maybe I should dig out
mine....”
The name plate outside her official residence had
her name engraved in English, Hindi, Urdu and Gur-
mukhi and every time my ‘secular libtard’ children
passed it, they would comment on how inclusive
that was, and how cool she was.
She was definitely ‘cool’. Her name cropped up re-
peatedly, (along with president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s,
another ‘cool dude’) in surveys funded by Pepsi, a
brand on which I worked on those days, in the cate-
gory ‘Youth Icons of India’. They both proved that youdid not have to be young in order to appeal to the
young, that what we call a Perennial today can have
vastly more youth connect than many Millennials.
Another urban legend about her was that as a
young mother she was absolutely ruthless about
keeping a spick-and-span home. If her kids did
not pick up their stuff and put it away by the end
of the day, she would apparently just throw it out,
donating it as she saw fit. This quickly taught them
to be neat. I was much inspired by this parenting
technique and decided to employ it. “She’s doing a
Sheila!” the kids would scream as I swept ruthlessly
through the house, picking up their favorite toys
and clothes and tossing them remorselessly into a
church box. “Stop her! Stop her!”
Maybe I am being appalling-
ly sexist here, but I do feel really
safe when there is a lady leader in
charge. The older, the better. If I
board a flight and hear a woman’s
voice go, “Good morning, this is
your captain speaking,” I slide back
into my seat, all my tension eased
away, and eat the most fattening
thing on the menu. As CEOs, pres-
idents, prime ministers and chief
ministers, the best of women bring
so much competence and calm to
the workplace. But even among this
small elite brigade, Mrs Dikshit’s name stands out.
After 15 rock-steady years in power, she was final-
ly undone by public anger at the unbridled corrup-
tion of the UPA in general and the Commonwealth
Games committees in particular, as well as people’s
anger over the Nirbhaya rape case (even though the
Delhi Police did not report to her, something Arvind
Kejriwal has used in his defence so many times
since then.) But she was as much an Empress of
Delhi as Sultana Razia.
It goes without saying that she will live on in her
city-state’s heart. But, Delhi, you need to name a
road after her ASAP. A good one. A long one. With
lots of trees and flowers lining it. And a big fat Metro
station.Delhi’s Sheila Sultana
ILLUSTRATION BHASKARAN