A snapshot from from poll-bound Purulia. A CPI-M party old-timer is flaunting his red stripes: "I have Lenin's voice and Netaji Subhas Chandra's voice on tape."

Outside his house, in the dirstrict headquarter town of a state ruled for 29 years by his party, a human snake, with stubs for legs and wrapped in a gunny bag, is slithering across the street, begging.

There is no way you can tell whether it is a man or a woman. You see the flies buzzing around festering wounds, you see slits for eyes and a rasping voice: Maa, duto chal de ma. (Give me some rice, mother)