So, the area where the jailer's office exists in a jail is called the 'dyodhi' ( a hindi word meaning threshold or an entry to the building), this is an area where you enter the building by crossing one gate but you are still not in jail proper. You enter the jail after getting your hand stamped by guards sitting at the gate of the inner area of the jail which has the wards for the inmates. So 'dyodhi' is the inmates' language. You cross it and you go inside. Before you enter though, if you are not an inmate then you get your hand stamped so that they know that you are an outsider.
In this area there are offices of the Jail staff including the Superintendent of the jail or the jailer. So, this evening I walked towards his office. It was unusually dark. He was not on his regular table and chair but sitting on a side, with his head in his hands .I was not sure whether I should address him or walk away and do my work. But then I thought why not and I said hello. He raised his head and he told me that the inmates in the two barracks had had a conflict brewing. The jail officials caught this in time. I realised that being a jailer is not so easy, it can keep you at the edge all the time.
What this meant was that I had to now work with a new set of inmates. And not in the ward now but in a small room which housed their library at the center of the jail.
