Raj Thackeray will talk to Lalu in Sanskrit

Raj Thackeray, like his close friend Sachin Tendulkar, is comfortable on any wicket. Bouncers, wrong ‘uns, beamers — nothing unnerves him. Whatever you throw at him, he manages to send it to the fence. The media, like bowlers, can tire of throwing him curve balls, but Thackeray, like Tendulkar, is always prepared for more.

The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief found himself taking guard on a foreign wicket on Thursday, as a guest in the office of an English daily (DNA’s) where there are enough non-Marathi-speaking employees as well as critics of MNS’s ‘ways’. By the time he left, even his worst critics had at least this to say about him, albeit grudgingly: “Yes, he’s very impressive.” His fans, on the other hand, were rendered useless (work-wise) for the rest of the evening, so taken in were they by his charisma.
The big question about Raj before he entered DNA’s office was what language would he be speaking in. Would he answer English questions in English or Marathi? It was the latter.

So how would he talk to a Lalu Prasad from the Hindi belt, if he were to ever meet him? He responded: “Sanskrit, I think I will use Sanskrit to interact with Yadav.”

The queries were born of a palpable, natural curiosity. Raj Thackeray, ask any city reporter, is not on everyone’s speed dial. This was a rare meeting, and no one wanted to be left out. In the end, language proved to be no barrier. A simply attired MNS chief had come to our office — bang on time, 5.05pm — with the intent to engage and, as it turned out, entertain.

All apprehensions on communication were set to rest, as employees found that it was not necessary to comprehend every word he said. His repartee and banter transcended the language problem, as he kept one of the largest contingents ever seen in the DNA conference room regaled for close to two hours.

His sense of humour was obvious as soon as he entered the room. “Is this the place where you invite people for a post-mortem? With all journalists around, I think I should be ready for that,” he said, winking at the person standing next to him.

Obviously, we wanted to know, did he like our newspaper? “I do like DNA as a newspaper; sometimes I just do not like the news stories you write on me. But stories like ‘Raj ne fir ughla zehar’ type of stories do make me more popular among people than anything,” he said with a straight face.

Interspersing serious replies with tongue-in-cheek repartees, he fended off googlies on Aditya Thackeray and Shiv Sena, tossed questions right back at us and, without batting an eyelid, proclaimed that he’s “yet to actually do anything [provocative]”.

Here are some Raj-isms which are still being discussed in the newsroom.

On his style of speaking being similar to that of Sena chief Bal Thackeray, he said: “I have travelled with him a lot. Seen him, heard him and worked with him.” And then, mimicking Atal Bihari Vajpayee, with one hand swinging in the air, he said, “If I would have been with him [Vajpayee] from childhood, then I would have taken this style.”

And when someone asked whether he had any plans of launching a Marathi newspaper, he stared at him for a second or two and said to a huge roar of laughter, “Seems your life’s not all well in here.”