Table Of ContentLIFE
AMONG THE
SCORPIONS
Published by
Rupa Publications India Pvt. Ltd 2017
7/16, Ansari Road, Daryaganj
New Delhi 110002
Copyright © Jaya Jaitly, 2017
All photographs in the book are courtesy the author, unless otherwise mentioned.
Photograph on the back cover: Jaya Jaitly, George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar at a peace march in Patna,
Bihar, 2000. Courtesy: AFP/Getty Images.
The views and opinions expressed in this book are the author’s own and the facts are as reported by her
which have been verified to the extent possible, and the publishers are not in any way liable for the same.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by
any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of
the publisher.
ISBN: 978-81-291-4909-1
First impression 2017
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 2 3 1
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired
out, or otherwise circulated, without the publisher’s prior consent, in any form of binding or cover other
than that in which it is published.
For my children Akshay and Aditi, although they say they do not require a
formal dedication from me.
To my craftspeople, my larger family, who have unknowingly given me solace
when I needed it the most, but are not likely to read this book.
~
CONTENTS
Prologue
1. My Beginnings: Amidst Matriarchy and Bureaucracy
2. Malabar Matriarchy: Experiencing My Roots
3. Delhi and Gandhi: Points of Return
4. Japan Days: Insight into Diplomacy
5. Burma to Myanmar: Engaging in Transitions
6. Belgium and England: Lessons in Loss
7. Delhi Again: But a Different Life
8. Smith College, USA: Savouring Literature and Freedom
9. ‘My’ State of Kashmir: Through War, Darkness and Light
10. A Tryst with Crafts and the ‘Crafty’: Gurjari and Dilli Haat
11. The Orwellian Year of 1984: The Beginning
12. The Horrors of an Orwellian Year: Towards No Closure
13. The Emotional Becomes Political: Towards a Bigger Public Platform
14. Elections: The Highest University of Politics
15. National Politics and Diplomacy: Instincts in Action
16. Cherchez la Femme: A Typical Scorpion’s Agenda
17. Good and Bad Match-fixing: Tehelka Sting I
18. ‘Why should the Taliban not shoot you?’: Tehelka Sting II
19. Omissions in the Commission: From Operation West End to Operation Abort
20. On the Sidelines: Provocation and Peace
21. A Small Moment of Glory in Manipur: This Is Politics
22. The Politics of Coalitions: George Fernandes, the Leader and Firefighter
23. Why Jaya Didn’t Make It to the Rajya Sabha List: Negatives Make News
24. Courts in India: A Slow Halal
25. Limbo as a State of Being: Alzheimer’s Disease and the Under Toad
26. Being Human: The Sadness of Caring in Public Life
Epilogue: I Don’t Believe in Sad Endings
Acknowledgements
PROLOGUE
Once, not too long ago in 2001, a twenty-four-year-old woman in Kota Baru,
Malaysia, emerged from a two-by-six metre glass cage after living with 2,700
poisonous scorpions for thirty days. According to news reports that went around
the world, she left the enclosure, which was positioned in the local museum, for
just fifteen minutes every day to use the bathroom. She survived seven stings,
two of them serious. Although she received a certificate from the museum’s
chairman, acknowledging her as the ‘scorpion queen’, she said that one of her
best rewards was making some new clawed friends. ‘I am particularly fond of
two scorpions, and I named one of them Bob,’ she said.
It would be difficult for me to understand why she performed the stunt.
When I read this story, I felt I was like the woman in that glass cage, her
every move being watched by everyone outside. There was nothing one could
hide. There was nowhere to escape. It was a public act for some intangible
reason that was hard to define. Like her, I too made a couple of good friends.
One of them could be called George Fernandes. He was not really one of the
scorpions but, being among them, he taught me to survive them.
My storytelling does not lead to the conclusion that politics for a woman is a
hellish choice and should be avoided. Quite to the contrary, it is cathartic, and
teaches more about life in all its ramifications than anything else can. As in
every other path one chooses to take in life, it is how we deal with what comes
our way that forges the steel in us. It is best not to expect success or happiness in
public life. At different times, survival itself is success enough, and happiness
can be just the experience itself—at times tragic, and others, sublime.
My story is therefore not about me, but just an example of what a woman in
India amid politics and public life, and its many-facedness, experiences in trying
to keep her integrity and humanity intact.
A life is never a linear journey with a clear beginning and a perceptible end,
unless you count the moments of birth and death. There is never total recall.
When remembering what matters, one counts those incidents that left an
impression on one’s mind for some inexplicable reason. We also recall an
experience as meaningful only if it carries a thread into a later context. This
happens when some situations repeat themselves in different forms, and, within
it, ironies reinforce earlier incidents. Our mind absorbs and records everything
but we often remember only parts as worthy of our attention. This interplay and
replay of incidents and experiences cannot be kept smoothly chronological if one
really wants to draw meaning out of them. Consequently, my book follows the
same pattern-less pattern, going back and forth in time, and sometimes
proceeding along a straight line.
Memoirs are usually written when a feeling of retirement sets in. However,
when there is no pause in the many aspects of one’s work that covers decades,
and when some battles are yet to be fought and won, a memoir becomes just
another layer of activism in the palimpsest of life.
