Telling omission

Amit Mitra, finance minister of West Bengal, appears to have acquired a language barrier within just a few years away from the capital. In his earlier avatar as a prominent office bearer of an industry lobby in New Delhi, he had routinely addressed the press in English. But attending a press conference in New Delhi on the eve of West Bengal day, he chose to greet the press in Bengali but promised to translate his Bengali comments into English for the conference. The need for this bilingual format was hard to fathom since there was a sizeable contingent of non-Bengali reporters present. Indeed, as the presser proceeded, Mitra slipped so deep into "Bengali" mode that he forgot to translate into English. After almost half the proceedings were over, someone pointed this out, to which Mitra reverted saying, "Oh yes, keep reminding me about that."