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A Rajasthani village prepares for 'Klintoon'

Josy Joseph in Naila

For its hour of glory in Bill Clinton's shadow, this village near Jaipur is leaving nothing unexplored.

An illiterate woman, thus, learns to operate the Windows system. Her sisters agree to remove their ghoonghat [veil] to receive a stranger. A villager clears almost an acre of lush crops to allow helicopters to land.

And, oh yes, they all struggle everyday, individually and together, to pronounce the name of their guest correctly.

Just before "angreezom ka rashtrapati [the president of the Whites] lands in this nondescript area, Naila, a village of a couple of thousands, is preparing to spend a night of awe. And disbelief.

The battalion of White House security personnel who have landed here are sending the kids here into a tizzy. The youngsters try to imitate the foreigners and their accent. The older women selected to be in the stage-managed show representing various facets of India's rural life have by now learnt to be relaxed in the presence of firangs.

By 1600 hours IST on Wednesday, the village was completely sanitised, and the Fategarh haveli, the centre of all action, sealed off to outsiders. The majestic structure built in 1875, by then prime minister of Jaipur Thakur Fateh Singhji Champawat, has been freshly painted, the primary health centre operating from its premises closed down.

The haveli would witnessed all the action on Thursday morning when Clinton and his entourage fly down to experience Indian rural life. Naila was selected for its proximity to Jaipur and due to the women empowerment programmes going on in the area.

During Clinton's one-hour stay, there will be three events. One, a panchayat meeting to be chaired by Sarpanch Kaluram Meenaa. Two, showcasing empowerment of women through various activities, specifically focusing on a daily milk collection centre. Three, the inauguration of village level networking of Rajasthan through the Internet and intranet, and providing cheap access to common folk to all information regarding the administration.

Says Dr Kanchan Mathur, a member of the Institute of Development Studies, who would be the official interpreter to Clinton and the villagers: "These women are empowered, they are the decision-makers and not the archetypal Indian women subdued in a male-dominated society."

Her brief is to showcase the capabilities of uneducated village women, who are slowly becoming financially independent. There are two women from Naila who are going to be part of that session. The rest are from neighbouring villages.

In the session on panchayat, Clinton would be shown how such elected bodies work. To add strength to the hands of the Naila panchayat, the district administration has brought together members of some of the neighbouring villages.

The mock panchayat session would again see Dr Mathur, an articulate social worker with a doctorate on violence against women in Rajasthan, acting as the interlocutor between the president and the Marwari-Hindi speaking rural folk.

The villagers, for their part, are an amused lot. Kailashi Devi, an illiterate woman with a child, has learned to operate Windows. She is now an icon in her village. She can click the mouse, open a file. She would show the president an immunisation card on the new computer tomorrow.

"She learnt all of it in two-and-a-half days," says Rohit K Singh, an IAS officer of 1989 batch, who is spearheading the attempt to bring information technology to the 9,000 villages of the state. The media in the state has not shown much interest in it, and the national media seem to have completely ignored it.

"When Andhra Pradesh introduced Internet connections in villages, it was a big news. We are doing much more," he says.

Naresh Kumar, however, does not know all that. An unemployed youth, he is sitting by a tea-stall staring at the foreigners moving around.

"Rashtrapati aa raha hai [The president is coming]," he says.

Does he know who? After much stammering, he manages to say: "Klintoon."

A stretch of over 10 kilometres from Jaipur to the village has been completely barricaded. Hundreds of policemen, many state ministers and senior bureaucrats have arrived in the village.

As one drives out of the village through the freshly tarred road, its walkways still dripping with whitewash, someone's attempt to avoid a third person between him and President Clinton is clear. The white board on the right side says it in red: THANKS.

CLINTON VISITS INDIA
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