Run for your life (A real story, happened on May 19, 2006)

I had completed three years of engineering at IIT Delhi. The summer vacations were going on, and we were supposed to be doing our internships. Many of my friends were doing their internships outside Delhi and were not here. I was doing my internship nearby, so I was staying at my hostel itself.

Recently the issue of reservations had become a hot topic. The Indian government had come out with a new policy, under which people falling under the category of 'Other Backward Classes' or the OBCs were to be given 27% reservation in government aided institutions, thus increasing the reservation of seats from an existing 22.5% to 49.5%. That is, half of the students getting into any government institute would get entry based on their caste, and not their merit. Obviously, this infuriated the middle class sections and many people thought that this was a very negative step taken by the government that could seriously affect the quality of the students going into prestigious universities of India. Thus India was divided into two factions, one supporting the cause and one against the cause.

It was the fifth day of my work. I was required to complete fifty days of work to register a successful internship. It was a Friday and I was looking forward to a two day rest period. I had just come back from the office, when I saw a notice on the notice board regarding a meeting being called for discussion on how to protest against the policy of reservation. After having my dinner, I went to the meeting. The people there were discussing strategies and were dividing responsibilities amongst the students. As I was a bit late to the meeting, I couldn’t get any responsibility even though I was looking forward to getting one. Thus the people who had not got any responsibilities were asked to go to Jawahar Lal Nehru University, for holding a peaceful demonstration against reservation.

We were about twenty in number and reached the JNU gate through auto rickshaws. We realised that the pro-reservation group of students were already holding fort inside the university. Still we were given a green signal saying that it was safe for us to go inside. We were given candles in our hands; we lighted them and went in shouting slogans of 'Reservation No Solution', 'Say No to Reservation' etc. As we entered the gates and went in a few hundred meters, we saw that there were at least a hundred pro-reservation protesters. We were outnumbered by five to one. Yes, the demonstration was supposed to be a peaceful one, but seeing their number advantage they started attacking us. We immediately started for the campus gate in order to escape the madding crowd. We were literally running when we reached the campus gates and I was one of the last ones to reach the place. The gates were closed after we had come out, but some of the pro-reservation guys managed to get out as well.

They caught hold of a poor guy and kicked him badly, making him fall. I was only a few feet away, and I was going to help him on his feet when I myself was attacked by a mad person. Yes, I will always remember him, that expression he had. His anger clearly showed a lot of frustration, as if I was going to put an end to reservation and this would have led to his son's/daughter's career getting ruined. Apart from some fear I felt, I thought the situation was really funny. I couldn't comprehend why he was so frustrated or why he was induced to hurt me when I had not done any harm to him. I guess those people were not only backward on paper, but backward in their thoughts as well as in their behavior. He punched me on the back, I jogged away from him to save myself, also seeing that the person who had fallen had managed to find his feet and was coming along with me. And then I was hit by a huge stone on the lower part of my back. This was enough to give me a warning, and I ran as fast as I could, still holding the unburnt candle in my hand and reaching at least a safe distance of about 200 meters from our rendezvous point.

This was the first time I had run so fast in order to save my life. This event has been seared into my memory. I came back to my hostel room, thankfully, not seriously hurt. I only had a slight pain in my back, where I had been hit by the stone. More than the pain, I had a feeling of humiliation on being forced to run like this. I called up my father to tell him all that had happened. He was obviously worried and asked me if I was okay. Subsequently, he had advice to offer me. He said, "Son, you are still too young to know where to go, how to react in tough situations. So if the situation demands it, you should run for your life. Bravery is not about getting hurt. Bravery is about using common sense in tough situations. After all, you shouldn't kill yourself for the mistakes done by some petty politicians. You have your future to look after."

That day I realised how precious life was.