For Rohit

I didn’t know you. I wouldn’t have known if you sat beside me sometime at Billoo’s or Chhedi’s. I wouldn’t have recognized you if I saw in the Insti or in the Dep – I wouldn’t even have noticed you. The only time I might have heard your name, I would have been booing at you – coz you would have been playing for LLR - against Azad.

But you were one of us. You belonged to this place, like I do. You were a person who would have spent 4-5 of the best years of your life in the god-forsaken place, just like me. You too would have bunked classes, just like me. You too would have murmured comments about Profs while sitting in class, just like me. You too would have wondered what you will do after you get out of this place, just like me. You too would have spent nights watching movies or in bhaatbaazi with friends, like I do. You too would have uttered abuses to seniors under your breath because they made you participate in events you wouldn’t have wanted to, just like me. And all this would have been sufficient to grow a bond between us if we had met at a future date.

And now you are not with us. All it took was a fall from a rickshaw to take you away from us. Everyone who knew how bad the system was and still didn’t do anything about it is a culprit – including me. I sincerely hope our reaction over the last two days will not peter out to a dead end but will continue till there really is a change in the system. Only then will I be able to redeem myself from the guilt of your untimely departure.