Comrade

 

The news on TV felt grim –

Students lathi-charged

For protesting and rallying.

Memories drift back

From decades past -

 

Michil, Andolon, Gherao

Mass boycotts, indefinite fasts

March to Brigade Ground

And that tension

Permeating the university air

 

As policemen in muddy brown uniform

Surround the island of revolution

With cane sticks and shields

Haate-haate comrade

Gore tolo barricade, the voices echo

 

The same scene plays over

In a different city today

I can hear Gokhale speak

What Bengal thinks today,

India thinks tomorrow.

 

But something in me

Changes today:

Till yesterday

It was about change

Anti-incumbency,

 

Even a bit of guilt

That we have slid back

To the days of the Unions,

Of Red sickle and hammer

In the age of capitalism

 

But today, it feels

With the aging of time –

Something more fundamental

The need to exist

The will to survive

 

Despite the heavy eyes

I smile –

Coming from the land of Khudiram, Netaji

And having grown on Tagore, Kazi

There should be nothing less to expect

 

The TV screen comes back to live –

Tear gas fills the sky

The lathi charge disperses the crowds –

Deep inside, I know – it’s not over

Haate-haate comrade…

 

22^nd July 2026

 

Written after the student protests at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, 2026, reminding me of university protest in Calcutta from 2006