To Delhi and Her People

My thoughts are a little jumbled up and not nicely phrased. But that is all right, there is no time to gather my thoughts. There is a need to speak, and so shall I. 

I started this small blog of mine just a few months after the anti-CAA NRC protests happened. I remember being in Delhi at that time, witnessing her people on the streets, and the government as well as the police charging down upon them with an iron fist. The situation today is no different. 2026, the lives of hundreds of students of this country is destroyed, the hopes of several thousand more are on the verge of being shattered, and one of our country’s finest scientist and educator is dying in protest. And what has the government done again? Exactly what they did six years back, resort to violence against its own subjects.

I am in Delhi at present. Yes, I am ashamed I was not there for the Jantar Mantar protests today. But I am writing this to celebrate and bring to light the struggles of hundreds and thousands of my fellow countrymen who are there on the streets, fighting for the future of our country’s education system. Some of my friends, students and colleagues were there at the protest, braving tear gas and indiscriminate lathi-charges. I am proud of all of them. They all make the country a better place to live in!

I am also proud of all the artists I follow on social media who have used their platforms to speak up and show solidarity, verbally or physically. They have not cared about potentially being cancelled out of any “big project” or not being invited to some “big event “. They have listened to their conscience and chose to stand by the countrymen they care for. I am glad I follow them and my respect for them as human beings have increased manifold!

I have no empathy towards those who are silent today! I do not know if they will have the privilege of remaining silent tomorrow, when everything will shatter and crumble around them. 

My blog is about Delhi and my experiences, and I have never written anything political here. But what is apolitical today? Isn’t it my complacence that I don’t use my blog, no matter how small and limited its outreach is, to speak up? At a time when many others, more influential than me, have chosen silence?

Dehlavi remains an open space to write and share experiences. And events such as these which shape our cities and lives deserve to be talked and written about on this page. If you, as a reader, feel the same, please don’t hesitate from raising your voice as well! Remember, there is no one way to show support and solidarity for those whose lives are at stake today. On the other hand, there is only one (and a very easy way) to remain silent and not speak up. You get to choose which one you want, till such time as the option to choose your own course of action is not completely snatched away from you.

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