Jaya Jaitley, a former politician, is a hothead activist. As a pioneer of the handicrafts movement in India, her most enduring contribution to the national capital is ‘Dilli Haat’ and now she has aptly taken up a new task… from craft revival to magazine revival.

‘the OtherSide’, as the monthly is called, is now in the hands of Jaya who has to find a devoted readership while brandishing socialist thought and action, which tasks come to her a decade after the journal had stopped publication. She is the new Editor, Publisher and Printer with former Defence Minister George Fernandes being the chairman of the editorial board and also her USP.

The journal aims to be part of people’s struggle in India. “At the same time, it is involved in the search for new ideas to illumine humanity’s path towards a more purposeful and rewarding life,” it declares. It is willing to accept ideas and contributions from all ideologies that promote equality in society.

Uncompromising as Jaya is, I will wait for ‘the OtherSide’ to establish as a forceful and indispensable monthly diary to be personally overseen by her. “I personally design the layout and select the colours every month to prove that being political does not mean dull. This alone should attract readers,” she says, adding “I handle most of the work which is very satisfying and challenging.”

I therefore expect this scion of the famous Chittur family of Sir C. Sankaran Nair and Miss Miranda House 1962 to rise from her present position and work attentively to win for herself an image that she has longed for and which she rightly deserves. For that, I don’t need to pamper her to either look into the mirror or walk dawn the memory lane. I also don’t need to tell her that she combines in her the best of several veterans – be it cultural czarina Pupul Jayakar or the legendary Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, who besides being a member of the Congress Socialist Party and a Gandhian did immensely to uplift handloom and handicrafts sectors and performing arts.

I know she writes well. I know she has been an invaluable Indian soldier. I know ‘the OtherSide’ will do very well under her leadership, given her urbane articulation and capacity to run organizations. What I don’t know is Jaya’s other side. I don’t know if she correctly remembers the lessons her ICS father taught her during his foreign assignments in Tokyo, Rangoon, Brussels and England. I don’t have any clue about her college days at Miranda House in Delhi in late 60’s and in Smith College in Mass. USA. I also don’t know why is she not inclined to lead India. May be she needs unquestioned nationwide respect. Do George and his men understand that!