Recollecting sm panga yaadein!!
Indeed,time flies by very fast.It seems like ystday when I (alongwith Gandhi)was secretly putting up notices in all hostels in the darkness of nite urging "the students’ fraternity to stage a mass protest against the deplorable condition of electricity in the college”(This was one of the lines of the notice that I’d drafted) & how shit scared I was when after having a clash with the Power grid people the police came searching for the person who had instigated this drama & unfortunately, that person was me .I’d never expected that things will take this ugly turn. I remember on the day of the protest I alongwith a coupla other guys went to each & evry room in the down hostels calling people out to join us if they want a solution to this electricity problem.At 9 am ,in front of the AD building,all people from Down hostels were joined by our juniors from the up hostels as well as girls frm the GH(That was the first time when gals became a part of any dharna in this college).
As generally happens in such protests, the college administration bluntly asked students to go back but after realizing that their booming voice is falling on deaf ears ,those poor souls were forced to have a meeting wih our hall representatives. The meeting ended with usual tall promises from the college authorities.
The incidents which took place after that sometimes give me goose bumps.We all went to the power grid & there in anger some ppl severed their office telephone lines & that was enough to bring out the demons in the men & their families who lived in the small huts in the power grid area..The area turned into a battlefield where we were surrounded by tribal men & women with swords,pickets & daggers in their hands .That picture of a tribal women hurling out abuses at us & charging at us with pickets & swords in their hands still sends a shiver down my spine. I still remember the scared faces of Rudra,Samik, Rahul & Rathz,Wasu etc. running for their lives with me & hundreds of others .We all were like people who were trapped in a well with no scope of escape. While I was running to find a safe passage out, I was stunned to see a tribal woman with at least a 2 meter long picket in her hand right in front of me spitting out abuses & with an angry face like that of Maa Kaali & embery eyes .I was thinking jus one thing can leave me dead the very next moment-that is a strike from that woman on my head.That was the only time in my life till date when I felt that surely it’s gonna be my last day on the earth & was saying to God ”Bhagwaan, maine toh abhi tak es duniya main kuch dekha hi nahin hai..Plz mujhe bacha le”. Bhagwaanji listened to our prayers(I’m damn sure that everyone would be praying the same thing )
Somehow, when we came back from the battlefield unscathed & people were happy that they ve just had visions of death, my biggest tension started then.The police was already on the campus & was questioning people about who initiated this. When somebody told me that police is enquiring people about the instigators,believe me, my mind & my face went dead blank. God only knows what all hurricanes were rocking mind that day.I was thinking that ur bright past & a brighter future is gonna be washed away by today’s back-out .What if the police comes & arrests me or even takes me to the police station?What if they inform my parents about this?What will happen to my hard-earned reputation in the college?Everybody would be slepping soundly while I’d be doing the rounds of the police station.
The police didn’t come that evening.But that didn’t give me any relief. That fateful night ,I couldn’t get a wink of sleep.The whole time all my achievements were flasing thru my eyes in the darkness of my room.That was the first time when I woke up at 4 am in the morning..Prayed to God to save me..As they say God’s listens to all so he listened to me too..so next day again the police came but the director didn’t give them permission to talk to any student.The moment I heard this news I felt like a weight as heavy as the earth’s weight is being unburdened from my shoulders.I was feeling relieved.
All this is now a thing of past, but I still wonder is it not right to fight for ur rights?How long can u bear a careless & a corrupt authority?Was I right in instigating all this? What would ve happened if the Police had caught hold of me? There are many ifs & buts but I personally feel that we were not wrong in voicing our opinion thru a dharna but what happened after dharna was st which shouldn't ve happened.But no regrets!!All in all it was a great experience which we'll remember down the memory lane.
Cheers!!
THINK OVER IT:
“A person who keeps remaining oppressed is as big a criminal as the oppressor himself” -Gandhiji
