Hindi and Urdu too... Mamata is picture of confidence

Budget presentations can be dry affairs with ministers poring into papers in front of them and rarely looking up as they reel out figures. Not so with Mamata Banerjee, who departed from the text frequently to address the house, admonish and even recited an Urdu couplet during the rail budget Friday.

Breaking into heavily accented Hindi off and on, Banerjee was the picture of confidence as she presented her third rail budget.  "Hum aah bhi bharte hain toh ho jaate hai badnaam; woh qatl bhi karte hain to charcha nahin hota," Banerjee said towards the beginning of the presentation. The reference was to the flak that employees of the railways get everytime something goes wrong, ignoring all the good work that is done.

She looked up frequently from the papers in front of her, getting angry and cajoling in turn as she asked the members to listen on patiently. The minister had clearly read the reams of papers well before coming to the house.