Friday 19 September 2014

Protibader, protirodher, protishodher comrade: #HokKolorob

"Jito tui thik achis? Kothay legeche? Tor kichu chai?"
 

"Sahana kothay? Oke phone e pachchi na! Bhishon tension hochche!"
 

"Sounak da ke niye gelo re. Amar samne diye niye gelo, kichu korte parlam na."
 

"I am okay. Chap khas na. Just internal injuries and multiple fractures."
 

"Tumi ki ekhono campus e? Oder ke chereche?"
 

The above snatches of conversation are a few examples of the level of panic that went through the minds of all of us the morning of 17th September, after the horrifying events of what happened the previous night.
 
Courtesy: Ishan Ghosh


We all know the horrors that the students who were there went through. For the students who weren't able to stay the night, it was equally horrifying, the trauma equally affecting them.
The hurried phone calls, the helpless feeling of seeing your loved ones being beaten senseless, the severe tension of not being able to contact them and then breaking down in relief when they finally reply, the unbelievable feeling of helpless rage- all part and parcel of our lives now.
 

No one should ever have to go through all that- not the physical trauma, nor the mental trauma. Yet, we are living in such a world that requires state forces to curb down a few tired non-violent college students, their only demand that the Vice Chancellor talk to them.
 

Courtesy: Ishan Ghosh
Society may progress, but it is true that history keeps repeating itself. Hence, the stories of students being beaten down when they rise for justice are many down the ages. It is also true however that the students have never bowed down, never given up the struggle.
The very existence of India's independence is due to to all the students rising up together. Just as the students never bowed down then, we won't now. You can enter the very university that is our home, you can use force and beat us bloody, you can try to take us away, but you won't be able to separate the entire student community, because its not just Jadavpur University students, its the entire of Calcutta.
 

I write this as a fellow student of Jadavpur who has experienced her friends go through things unspeakable, who cannot unsee what she saw, where people she loves and cares for went through hell in a place that she loves with her being, her college, her university.
 

No matter what the press says, what certain political party says- we all know what happened. And we will not bow down. Not this time. The fight has begun. And it will continue.
 

#Hokkolorob
 

-Julia Banerjee

Photo Courtesy: Ishan Ghosh





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