We must talk about the weather

Umar Khalid and his world

I had never seen or spoken to Banojyotsna, but I had known her name since my second year of college. She was a student organizer at Presidency College while I was doing something similar at Jadavpur University. She remains active in the political space of democratic resistance, while my path has meandered through other facets of life. The only remaining link that connects her world to mine is the word Buno, a diminutive of her name. Before our son was born, even before we knew he was a son or a daughter, I had proposed to A to call that little life Buno - the wild one.

A few days back, I bought this collection of essays, poems and other writings, called Umar Khalid and his world. Umar Khalid is Banojyotsna's partner. Umar Khalid is one of the two prime accused in the Delhi Riots case, that trailed the heroic anti-CAA protests at Delhi's Shaheen bagh, who have not been granted bail. Even after five years. The charges relate to matters of extreme national security concern, and he has been incarcerated, along with Sharjeel Imam, under UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act), for which the actual trial has not yet started. Even after five years. There's a vacancy of judicial appointment in lower courts, supplementary chargesheets keep being added. There are legal maneuvers from the defense as well, just to secure a bail. The bright and energetic ex-chief justice of India, D. Y. Chandrachud, had made it a priority to change the judicial inhibition to granting bails for long under-trails, uphold the constitutional promise of personal liberty. His alphabet list of names had missed the letter U, as MP Mohua Moitra had pointed out in the parliament.

Taken from that book, below is a very short piece by Banojyotsna about what they talked about in one of the fifteen-minute window she gets to video-chat with Umar each week:

It is indeed getting hotter with each passing day. This land has seen such incarceration before, and this by no means is the last. We adjust, and move on, adapting to live with a little less freedom, every day. But there is a cost. When the birds stop singing, we can only stare at the night. Umar Khalid's world is also our world.