Signals from North Avenue

Mausam Noor, the Youth Congress president of West Bengal, is having a busy time lobbying for tickets for her acolytes in the upcoming Assembly polls. On Monday evening, she met Finance Minister and the top Congress leader of the state Pranab Mukherjee. Before submitting her list of 30 candidates (the Congress will contest 65 seats), Noor resorted to the best way to appease Mukherjee — by evoking old memories. The young lady told Mukherjee, “Dada, in your initial days as member of Parliament, you used to stay at 80, South Avenue. I have been allotted the same flat this time.” Revelling in the nostalgia, Mukherjee was moved to remark, “You too have started your career from 80, North Avenue. Nobody can stop you from reaching the top.”