Faizabad: Faizabad is as mofussil as it can get in the hinterland of Uttar Pradesh. One hundred and twenty odd kilometers from the capital Lucknow, the lanes at peak office hours remain packed as sardines. On both havelis and temples abutting these lanes, masonry has peeled off, exposing patches of thin half-brick farri. Sadar, and the military cantonment beyond the city-limits, remains the island of tranquility with wide avenues lined up with jamun and neem trees. People from far and wide still throng the deewani (civil) and fauzdari adalat (criminal court) every morning. Faizabad was the capital of Avadh or Oudh - as it was then called - before the nawaabs decided to shift the seat of power to Lucknow.
It is these adalats or courts, which have over the years helped me make sense of what is happening - political and otherwise - in the district and beyond. They all come here from every tehsil and block, to appear before courts, to settle and contest claims and counter claims over land dispute, murders and decoity, kidnapping and rape. People from every caste and creed, Hindus and Muslims, Yadavs and Kurmis, Brahmins and Thakurs, Kushwahas and Rajbhars, slurping sweet tea from earthen cups.
"So what's the mood like?" I asked an old acquaintance who doubles up as a lawyer during the day and a journalist for a national daily in the evening.
"Pata nahin bhaiyya, kaun jitihen, pata nahin (don't know brother, don't know who'll win)", he grins exposing a perfect set of beetal stained incisors jutting out.
I pestered him further. He wasn't forthcoming. 'So this is a wave election.' I coaxed him further. 'Hawa to hai bhaiya'.
I prod him to reveal more. As the motley gathering around started to thin, he appeared more forthcoming. I tried to get the micro picture and started to discuss scenario and each seat.
'So if it's a wave, then BJP is surely winning the Faizabad-Ayodhya seat,' I asked.
'Well, the local candidate has lost the last two Lok Sabha elections and even the assembly polls the last time around,' he replied.
'And the adjoining Gonda?'
'Well, the BJP has recently imported the candidate from Samajwadi Party. The caste equation is such that a section of the upper caste can vote for cycle'
'And Kaisargunj?'
'Again an imported candidate. It would be interesting which way Yadavs will go'
And so on and so forth.
In about a dozen seats of Awadh and Devipatan (north-central UP bordering Nepal), I got a detailed and a complete lowdown on which caste was voting for which party or the candidate and accordingly how the Muslims were tactically aligning themselves.
A little bewildered confused, I got up to leave to for Lucknow. Before saying our goodbyes, I made one final query: 'Lekin hawa kahan-kahan hai (where all is the wave)?'
Taking a long, deep slurp from the tea cup, he looked up and added as an afterthought, 'Bhaiyya wo bhi hai(that too).'
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