MAD WOMEN IN THE ATTIC OF SRFTI

You see in SRFTI, there are two kinds of women. Like during Victorian representation of women in fiction, you can be of the angelic kind. By angelic i do not mean sweet spoken or any of the conventional definitions of a 'proper' woman. On the contrary, these angelic women are very unconventional in their own ways, are expressive and in fact, are fun to hang out with. Only, if you speak about sexual harassment they will turn around and say that there is no such thing/ i am a girl too, i never faced it/ i am a girl too, i have faced it and this is not how i reacted/ it never happened/ you are insane/ you are attention seeking/ you need to be controlled/ you are threatening them etc. Now the girls who complain about sexual harassment will fall into the demonic category, those who have to be locked in attics like in Jane Eyre just because patriarchy cannot think of any other possibility of a woman to be other than an angel or a demon.

So on 10th June 2016 an emergency meeting of the Governing Council of SRFTI was held. Three parents had come to campus just to speak with the governing council members and let them know how their wards were suffering and also to tell people including the chairperson how the delay in acting upon the ICC report was costing a lot to their wards. One of the parents had flown down from Bhopal because the situation was getting worse by day. When we went in there we were asked to wait in the registrar's room where people including the Administrative Officer tried to convince the parents that nothing was wrong with SRFTI. When after forty minutes of waiting the messenger came out to say that we could go in, they stopped us students, two sexual harassment complainants ourselves. A female security personnel who was deployed there used force on us. One of the complainants raised her voice saying we HAD to see the GC members. The scuffle resulted in bruises in her arm. My own mother's arm is still aching and she has to go to seek medical help tomorrow. The letter i was carrying was torn in the scuffle. I have submitted it in front of the GC and have asked them to please mark it as proof of the violence that was thrown at us.

You can see what happened there in this video captured by Vai Vow. The women you see in here are the mad women in SRFTI's attic. This is how we are treated.

After some time, a group of students who belong to the majority who continue to harass and intimidate us came in. That included a sexual harassment complainant herself. The only thing absent there was a red carpet. They were welcomed with wide open doors. No security guard, male or female touched them. Five names had already been given to the security in charge and he had been instructed that they would be let in. All of them were women. There were three people from the SRFTI administration who were present in the GC meeting. One was the chairperson Partha Ghose, the current Director Mr. Amaresh Chakraburtty, the current dean Mr Debashish Ghoshal. I think it is safe to assume that the entry of the five girls who wanted to speak to the GC as people who 'do not wish to take sides' and are taking sides just by saying it was enabled by one of them. I know how faculty and chairperson have manipulated the angelic students to this extent. Who suffers? We do. We will be called insane and be forced out of meetings where we have to speak. We have a video of how the five girls were welcomed in with wide open doors as well. Not posting it because that would reveal the identity of one of the complainants.

Three cheers to the complainant who made our entry possible by speaking in her 'shrill' voice which people make fun of, by using her gesticulations and the truth of her soul which everyone despises. You go girl.

We spoke at the meeting. Our parents did too. I don't know if it had any effect on anyone, if it was enough to get our points across. My own mother was quite emotional and traumatized after a security personnel handled her. She later told me that it was for the first time that something like that had happened to her. I felt guilty. It's okay, i said, it will all end soon. But will it?

Today, 12th June 2016 i read this report in the Times of India. Let me quote one of the professors who have been found guilty.

...it is rumoured that SRFTI will go ahead with punishing two professors, ignoring strong advice from a number of legal experts. The professors, along with majority of students, are shocked by this action which is legally ill-advised and ethically dubious."


According to his claim, the "SRFTI authority" wants the accused to get "justice" from the court. "A number of legal experts, reportedly, made strong observations against the internal complaints committee findings and recommendations. What prompted SRFTI authority to brush the legal opinions aside? This is a burning question that is sure to grip the campus soon," the faculty member said.

Choose the Correct Answer
1. How does the professor know that SRFTI sought advice from a number of legal experts? Ans. Chairperson/Dean/Director
2. How does he know that the strong advice was ignored? Ans: Chairperson/Dean/Director
3. Majority of students are shocked by this action- Which action?
Ans. We don't know because there has been no action yet/ the action the professor has been informed that would be taken by the Chairperson/Dean/Director/ What's action?
4. The professor mentions majority of students. Who are they, how does he know all of their opinion?
Ans. The majority told the professor/the professor told the majority/the Chairperson/Dean/Director told the professor that the majority said that
5. 'Grip the campus soon'- what does the professor mean?
Ans. Only he knows because only he has been told/ Only the majority and the administration know because the professor has told them/ Nobody knows.

Coming back to the mad women in the attic, i chanced upon a letter written to the chairperson by one of my batchmates. The letter was supposed to be shared with me because it had allegations against me. This was not done probably because chairperson Partha Ghose thought that that was the best illegal thing to do at that moment. Anyway wrapping up with the part that affirms SRFTI's problem with women like me or me.

Also the complainant Kunjila Mascillamani is mentally unfit. She has tried committing suicide, is under psychiatric treatment and is self destructive. She has written so herself in her blog posts. Yet her statements are being taken. And she is free to roam about. She is writing complaints and lodging FIRs on a daily basis. This shows how mentally unstable she is.

The girl had blocked me on Facebook some time ago. After i put this up in my newsfeed she ublocked me. I am also pasting here the same girl had sent me after i returned from hospital after my suicide attempt. This is no parable to say how people change. It is just to say that when there are a hundred people telling you that you are mad, and if you are a woman, especially, be sure that you are doing something right.

I have given up hope but am still hoping against all hopes that we get justice. The fight shall continue.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT BATTLE: MINISTRY WRITES BACK

On 1st June 2016 when all children went back to school back at home, Kerala i received a mail which i believe is from the ministry of Information and Broadcasting. It was ccd to the director and the chairperson of the institute and it read thus.

Ma'm!
Please refer your emails regarding pending complaints filed by you. As you know, the Internal Complaint Committee (ICC) set up by the Institute is inquiring into them and has also submitted its report on some of them. The concerned disciplinary authority is looking into the reports submitted by the ICC and appropriate action would be taken in accordance with the prescribed procedure in this regard. You may appreciate that the management has taken several steps in this regard. You may also appreciate that in such matters, the procedure as prescribed is to be followed and you may be rest assured that the Institute will take all necessary measures in accordance with the prescribed Rules. As regards threats from certain quarters, the Institute is taking necessary steps to address your concern. 

I do not know what to make of this letter because it is not really addressing any of the problems i had written them about. Even then i have decided to believe that it is a ray of hope that they wrote back. I wrote back to them thus.

Dear sir,Thanks for the reassuring reply.
I would, however like to point out certain queries and grievances which have been left unanswered.
The reply that you sent me was ccd to the chairperson Mr Partha Ghose. It is against his harassment that i had written to you first. His brutal form of harassment towards a sexual harassment complainant needs to be addressed immediately also because he holds power and that in itself is intimidating. I hope you remember the faculty meeting held by Mr. Partha Ghose which was nothing but a plot to eradicate the element called me from campus. Please intervene immediately.
The management has not provided us with the copy of the ICC report up until this moment when i am writing to you.
The management has not taken any action based on the findings of ICC.
The management has not taken any action against the students who were engaged in a massive intimidation campaign.
Thanks,
kunjila.

I really hope the ministry intervenes and we win this battle. I am waiting.

AGENDA FOR TODAY'S MEETING: 'WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH KUNJILA'

I didn't know i was so important. So threatening. Really, i am a short woman, not well built. I can't knock anyone off even if i wanted to. I have no money. My parent is not rich. Nor is she famous. I am in no power position. I am a student and i am struggling to make a film.
So on 30th May 2016, when the chairperson Mr Partha Ghose, called for a meeting of all faculty, little did i know that the agenda for it would be 'what shall we do to kunjila'. Well, that was what it was. So the chairperson who had a few days ago bestowed the wisdom that 'taali ek haath se nahi bajta' (you can't clap with just one hand, when i complained about the harassment the student community was subjecting me to) called a meeting of all faculty members and asked what was to be done with me. I was maligning the name of the institute and was swearing at professors on social media. Surely, i had to be punished? Also, the unsaid backstory,

1. I complained against sexual harassment on campus.
2. I said that a professor had raped me
3. I said that another professor had sexually harassed me
4. I said that the institute was a hub of drunkards and weed doers who chose to make life of other students miserable after they indulged in these,
5. I said that one of the professors was guilty of instigating students into committing sexual harassment
6. I said that one of the professors engaged in absolute hate speech in company of students. I made public a video which proved the same
7. I exposed the misogynist the chairperson Partha Ghose is.
8. I wrote to the Ministry of I&B saying the same.
9.

Oh wait. What was that again?
Yes. I wrote a letter to the Ministry of I&B explaining the harassment Mr Partha Ghose subjected me to. I made that letter public. When an activist made a petition seeking the resignation of Mr Partha Ghose for the same reason, i shared the petition and asked fellow fighters to sign it. And the next thing i know the man calls for a meeting of faculty members and discusses what shall be done with me? Yes.

So why is it that a room full of people who are more than double my age decided to write a letter against me? Because i am what is wrong with SRFTI? You must be joking.

I have written to the ministry again this way.

Dear authority,
I have repeatedly written to you talking about the tremendous amount of harassment i am being subjected to in SRFTI. I have received no reply. Yesterday, i got to know from a professor who had attended the meeting themselves that the chairperson of the institute, Mr. Partha Ghose had called a meeting of all faculty members. The agenda of the meeting was 'what shall be done to kunjila'. Is this permissible? In the meeting it was decided that all the faculty members shall file a complaint against me because i have been maligning the reputation of the institute. It was no surprise because Mr. Partha Ghose himself had earlier told me that 'we shall not wash SRFTI's dirty linen in public'. This is a deliberate attempt to stall the shoot of my diploma project which is scheduled to begin on 9th June. Other than exposing the chairperson of his attitude towards women and sexual harassment, other than bringing out the truth about certain professors here, what is it that i have done to deserve this? Are the above mentioned things crimes? I know they are not.
Please intervene immediately and stop this lobbying of the chairperson and faculty members against me. I have only stood by the truth and will continue to do so till the end of my life. If SRFTI decides to kill me, then i will continue doing that till the murder.
Thanks,
kunjila.

I don't know if i will get justice. Nor do i know if we will win this fight. I am summarising telling you what a day of a sexual harassment complainant is like. This is an average day. Sometimes it is worse. Sometimes it is even worse. This is not to say that it is hard. It is hard. But this, is to say that it is possible. I am alive up until now so anybody can do it. Unlike what Mr. Partha Ghose and the faculty here think of me, i am not a superhuman. It seems very difficult when you go through it but later you can just write it down like this and tell other women the same. That it is possible.

On 30th May 2016, i went to sleep at around 6 a.m. I had to leave for recce in the morning so i had to wake up at around 9 a.m. I did. I took my actor who had come all the way from Kerala for my project t for breakfast outside because mess serves bread on Mondays. Poori outside was better and cheaper. After that i set out to the department and printed the latest version of shot division. I wrote a letter to the director asking for the copy of the report submitted by ICC for sexual harassment. I got all the complainants to sign on it. I wrote another letter to the registrar because the guest house people told me that my actor couldn't stay there. I went to the registrar and he asked me to get a copy of it made and i spent ten minutes making his PA understand what a copy is. [From the time the receptionist at the guest house told me that my actor couldn't stay there my eyes had started welling up and never stopped till noon. It happens with me when i am depressed.] I went down to the reception and said that Vai Vow, my witness in one of the student cases in ICC, would not be able to come because he is in Maharashtra and that he would have to give his testimony on phone. The receptionist who is also a member of the student ICC told me that the ICC hearing was going on. Then i realized that it was 30th May. I called Vai Vow up and informed him of the situation. Babysitted him on what to do. Most adults around me including my own mother need babysitting when it comes to getting things done, writing letters etc. Yes, it is fucking irritating. I went back to the internet room and made some changes in my diploma schedule. I went to the sound department to issue equipment and was told that they would not issue it in my name. They needed a senior sound student. No senior sound student remains on campus who even talks to me. Ostracised me, remember. I was asked to go to my own department and get a sign from a faculty. I went to one staff and two faculty members. All of them refused for one reason or the other. I went to the HoD of the department and broke down in front of him saying what kind of harassment i had to face every day when my shoot was just around the corner. He said he would make an 'exception' for me. He said he would decide which equipment to be given. I did not get the equipment i asked for but had to be 'happy' that i had got it issued because, well, that's the way things are around sexual harassment complainants, especially me. After that me and most of my crew set out on recce. We went to Port Trust. We waited a long time there. We went to Deodar Street. We went to Jadavpur 8B, a lab there and a tailor shop there, both my locations. We went to Medica hospital. I had tea. I returned. I got the news of the meeting. I cancelled the rehearsals i was going to have with my actor because i was too disturbed. I spent some time talking to Vai Vow and realized i was awfully jealous of him because he did not have to face any of this before his shoot. I spoke to sister, mother visited, babysitted her again. Fought with sister, spoke to her, argued, gave up and facebooked. On facebook i was slut shamed again. Point number three which the senior student mentioned sounded like it came out of some mallu film. Only it was from a bengali film (student). Wrote letter to the ministry. Will go have tea in some time and have a goja because i am goddamn hungry. Then will be back, work on shot division, read Bresson, twist and turn in bed till dawn and fall asleep when i come up with some grand plan in my head which will save me from this torture. Tomorrow is a new day and it will bring me sunshine and laughter. Only, it won't.

HARASSMENT BY CHAIRPERSON PARTHA GHOSE: OPEN LETTER TO I&B: SEXUAL HARASSMENT BATTLE AND THE MOB

To,

The Ministry of I&B, India,

ICC,

The Director,

SRFTI

Dear authority,

I am writing this letter to report the harassment that i had to face from the chairperson of the institute, SRFTI, Mr. Partha Ghosh. I am a sexual harassment complainant and had gone to report the numerous instances of intimidation and harassment that i was facing from the student body. After the ICC had found two professors guilty of sexual harassment, the violence from the students to me, other complainants and our supporters had shot up.

Yesterday, 24th May, 2016, i had gone to the director of the institute to report the most recent incident in which i was called ‘behen ke laudi’ and was threatened that ‘this happened outside the institute. You can’t do anything about it’. The director was in the chairperson’s room, talking to him. When i entered with junior student Kalhan Raina who is also facing intimidation and death threats, Mr Ghosh asked me what was in my hand. I said that it was my phone. He asked me to put it away. I asked him why. He said he couldn’t record what he was saying. I again asked why. He said that he wouldn’t talk to us if we were to quote him later. So i had to put my phone away.

When i started telling him and the director what i was being subjected to in the past couple of weeks, he started mocking me. He said that ‘taali ek haath se nahi bajta hai’, [you cannot clap with just one hand]. When i asked him what he meant by that he said that ‘till i saw the video of the professor i used to believe that it was a one-sided attack. But after seeing the video i now believe that it (violence against us) is response to your provocation’. He was referring to the video that i had uploaded of Mr. Subhadra Chowdhury, professor, who was found guilty of sexual harassment in which he was saying very objectionable things. 

I asked the chairperson why he was not talking about the content of the video. I told him how that video was made for public viewing and how the person who had shot it had told the professor that he was shooting it. In fact the professor himself had given inputs on edit to the student. The chairperson did not listen to me.

Later when i pointed out that i was being threatened every day he started mocking me. What can we do? He asked me. I said i shouldn’t feel threatened in the campus. He mocked me again saying, ‘So what shall I do? I can post a security guard by your side who goes wherever you go’. At this point i couldn’t bear the humiliation any longer and i got up and said that it was absolutely mean and pathetic that he was talking to me that way. I said that if a student was feeling threatened the solution was not to employ guards but to remove the elements which are threatening the student. I said this and left the room.

I went back again once more still in tears to let him know that i have received yet another threat from a female student who is asking alumni to join hands in kicking insane elements like me out of the institute.

I am writing this to bring to your notice how a girl who spoke up against sexual harassment is constantly being harassed by students, faculty and the highest of authorities. My friends who stayed back in the room after i left crying told me that Mr Partha Ghosh had asked them to ‘please control kunjila’. Why is it that it is i who have to be controlled when the students and professors who unleashed terrible amount of violence on me are parading the institute without any sort of control over them. Why did Mr. Partha Ghosh ask me not to record if not to say such humiliating things to me and leave me with no evidence. Mr Kalhan Raina was present throughout the incident and he can testify to what i have said. The director of the institute was also present while i was being harassed even though i am not sure he will testify for me.

Please take action against this complaint.

Thanks,

kunjila

Kolkata,

25th May 2015

I have sent this letter to the Ministry of I and B and i am seeking justice. Meanwhile students here have ganged up more than ever, unleashing a vicious attack on us complainants. I am attaching the screenshots of some of the posts put up on social media directly attacking us complainants and calling us liars, mentally ill, pseudo feminists etc. The amount of violence in their posts itself is such and you can imagine how it must be when we take a walk on campus. It is horrible. 

One of the students seeks the help of seniors to kick insane people like us out of the campus. The same person also goes ahead and calls me/complainants pseudo feminists. Says that we think that 'men on earth have  only one aspiration in life-to rape women'.

In the following update you can see that a student is stating as a fact which is only her opinion which is 'Not all cases are true. not all women are victims. Some are plain politicians...There has been NO death threats. I repeat NO DEATH THREATS. NO abuse. DO NOT FALL FOR THESE. SOMEONE IS TRYING TO GET YOUR SYMPATHY. THEY ARE TRYING TO PULL YOU IN YOUR SENTIMENTS FOR A WOMEN. YOU ARE BEING USED. YOUR RESPECT FOR WOMEN IS BEING POLITICISED.

 

Now let  me expose the lies mentioned by this student in a couple of seconds. 

1. There was a death threat. A student had told his junior student (Kalhan) that he would be found in a pool of blood outside some day soon. Soon after that comment which was posted on one of my own posts on facebook, he deleted it and even made fun of the student by saying that the comment was now gone. Later he went on to say that it was only a joke. He himself put up a status saying his death threat was only a 'mole' (i am assuming molehill is what he meant) and that the person who got the threat was making a mountain out of it. Here is that post in which he is even mocking the student he threatened saying he is an 'asset' to SRFTI. 

Again another student who keeps referring to me as a mental patient wrote to provide strength to the death threat student saying he was 'dealing with a bunch of insane psychopaths' and not to worry because 'there will be more dramas coming up, all you know that there's a complaint against you. Because you know complaints are the most powerful weapon for all the pseudo feminists across the world'.

2. Dispelling lie number two by the student which is that there has been NO abuse and that everything is cooked up by attention hungry students like me, i would ask the indian public plus SRFTI to go through the ICC report which has pronounced TWO professors GUILTY and have recommended the harshest of punishments. This is a quote directly from the office of the director of the institute and was reported in an article in a newspaper. There are four female students who made complaints against faculty and there are 2 complaints against one, 3 against the other and 1 against the third. I am really curious to know why the mob thinks that all these women one fine day decided to tell a bunch of lies and subject themselves to insane amounts of humiliation which is what is thrown at sexual harassment complainants in india, usually. 

In the above status the same student spurts another series of lies. Dispelling them one by one and pointing out the stupidity of the argument?.

1. 'Under psychiatric treatment' is probably a shot at me, the only person on campus who has written about her sessions with the shrink. Yes, i take anti-depressants and mood stablisers and i attended sessions with a shrink for a year to get out of depression. I don't see how that makes me have a 'dented mind'. The absolute insensitivity towards mental health issues and depression is the hallmark of SRFTI. The status just proves it further.

2. The victims who prefer to be called survivors are happily roaming about.

At least in my case i can say that i have no problem with being called either a victim or a survivor. Yes, we are happily? (not too sure) roaming about. So what are we supposed to do? Shut ourselves in our rooms and not talk? Not happening people. I don't know which century you belong to, but i will fight sexual harassment tooth and nail, sitting in room, laughing when i feel like, crying when i feel like, sleeping, eating, not eating...doing things which normal people do because that is what we are  too. People. 

3. They do their regular work with other students.

There are no other students. It's us 6 and them 150. I am working with people, even girls, who don't even believe that i was raped and it is not easy. Regular work? No. The students have tried all they can to stop me from working by creating the most hostile environment and i still don't know how i will start my shoot in less than two weeks in such an environment. Every day is a battle. Every night is sleepless.

We stick to ourselves and are always with each other because there is no one left to talk to and there are only so many people who believe us. In the mess or the canteen if you see someone eating alone in all probability it is one of us.  When we are not alone we are with one of us six.

Laugh loudly- again at me, i think, i have an extra loud laughter which is quite annoying. And yes, i will continue laughing because (again) yes, that's one of the things people do and i am people.

Badminton tournament: Happened ages ago and even on that occasion an announcement was made over the microphone that there would be a party, later corrected to 'bhajan keertan', mockingly. That was the morning in which i was called 'behen ke laudi' by one of the students and they hit an iron rod on a pole in the badminton court right in front of my room at 6 in the morning. So, isn't it better one doesn't mention 'play badminton and no one bats an eyelid'. 
By the way, why should anyone bat an eyelid? Why does it sound as if it is a miracle that nobody batted an eyelid. Freudian slips, i say. :)

4. Kalhan shooting a student only general body video. 

Blatant lie. Kalhan never shot anything. He made an audio recording upon the request of some of the complainants because such 'student only' meetings were being used to spread lies. And yes, he caught a student representative lying. We checked with a lot of sources and still haven't understood what is wrong with recording a meeting which was supposed to be transparent. My request asking for the minutes of the meeting yielded no reply. 

5. The student who was subjected to public trial walked in there by his own will.

Yes, of course he did. Such general body meetings are not expected to be violent. They are not supposed to be. The girl again makes a slip by suggesting that we be grateful that they are not from ancient india. It is nothing to be grateful or happy about. It is how things should be and it is how things were not in that meeting which was undemocratic to begin with. It is just as stupid as saying that we are nice people because we don't practise Sati anymore. 

Kalhan was subjected to harassment from 11.30 at night to 3.30 in the morning. A mob of around forty people surrounded him and kept asking him questions till the time a fellow complainant and i entered the terrace and questioned the mob. The mob turned violent against us and attacked the three of us in packs. That is, around forty students against the three or four of us. I have the audio recording of the mob in which one student can be heard yelling 'I am not scared of you Kunjila, I am not Shyamal Sengupta'. Mr. Sengupta, is a professor against three female students including me had complained. You can hear how people mocked us girls mimicking our voices, laughter etc, how we were booed and laughed at. There was even applause when the above mentioned dialogue was said. 

By the way the female student spreading these lies has blocked me on Facebook. This is just a hint of how democratic SRFTI is and what its people's understanding of democracy is. 
 
I have not finished editing the 1.30 hour long audio recording because i have a film to shoot soon. Shall upload it and update here when i do that.

While we are being called names and being accused of being mentally ill i would also like my readers to go through the series i had published in my blog about my sessions with a shrink. I did that because i knew that a lot of women were going through similar problems and that it would help them. My own mother said that it was not wise for me to write about such things precisely because of the reason which has just unfolded in front of my eyes. That people will use it to paint me as an insane female. Insane is a monolithic idea for most people which immediately paints a picture of a woman chained to a cot or something such. Nobody understands depression. In fact in the controversial video of the professor there is a portion in which he says that there is nothing called 'depression' and that my suicide attempt was only because i had a mother who had money and who could stay in Kolkata to look after me. 
The truth is that a lot of people, especially women, wrote to me after i published that series and even got the number of my psychologist from me. One of them was the girl who called us 'psychopaths'. I hope she recovers from this time capsule she has shut herself in, denying the truth and believing the fake and the false. Women, i hope you find peace. 

Much love,
kunjila.

PITFB: When Kozhikode Joined FTII in its Protest

On 17th June 2015 a group of youngsters who joined hands through social media organized a protest meeting in solidarity with FTII (Film and Television Institute of India) at Mananchira. I went. Back in Kolkata SRFTI (Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute of India) had already held protest meetings. It was in solidarity with FTII and also against the changes in syllabus and in particular to save the playback project for the junior batches. FTII had protested against the appointment of Mr. Gajendra Chauhan as its Chairperson. Mr. Chauhan's only claim for eligibility for the post seemed to be that he played Yudhishtir in Mahabharata series. Apart from this he was also busy being an active Narendra Modi supporter and making promotional videos? for the P.M. Clearly, the aim was to saffronize the school. We couldn't let that happen. A huge majority of people in these two film schools were ones who had cinema as their passion. Most of us believed in freedom of expression and independent film making. We respected art. We hated propaganda.

When i saw my classmates and fellow film mates sing and shout in protest i felt restless at home, Kozhikode. The next day SRFTI ans marched to JU (Jadavpur University) and students there too joined. Eminent film makers from the city who were also alumni of FTII joined the rally. I couldn't sleep. The next day i saw on social media that a group of people were organizing a similar protest in Mananchira and that another one of the same kind was going to be held at Kochi. I felt proud. I liked it also because these were not film students, but only people who genuinely understood how serious the matter was and felt the need to resist it.

Sky was overcast even at 3:45 p.m. A small group of people were sticking signs on a cloth which was wrapped around the base of statue of S.K Pottekkad.There were some familiar faces.

By the time i had a coffee and two teas and came back at 5 p.m Shahabaz Aman, renowned composer and ghazal singer was there. We circled the park singing, raising slogans against fascism and asking Gajendra Chauhan to 'go back'. After reaching S.K again several people spoke of the need to resist saffronization of art, history etc across the country. Among them were film makers like Gopal Menon and Anil Kumar. Mr. Anil Kumar spoke of how farcical it was that Mr Chauhan 'assured' that his politics wouldn't be propagated while he was chairperson. He said that his appointment itself meant his politics and was a sign of how it was going to be spread on campus. Shahabaz Aman sang 'Zammilooni', a song from the film 'Annayum Rasoolum'. He said that he chose it because of its director Rajiv Ravi, acclaimed cinematographer and director who had earlier expressed solidarity with the strike at FTII.

Shahabaz Aman sings Zammilooni

It rained intermittently. People sang and spoke through it. It felt good.

I am yet to arrange artists for my playback (Play it the F**k Back or PITFB) project. This is more important as of now. Politics is inseparable from art and this has to be made clear in all ways possible. All art was political and that was why artists had to be responsible. We shall not let it be engulfed by Sangh Parivar goons. June was approaching its end. The next day, Vai, my classmate was going to arrive. I was excited and equally scared. I was a terrible host and the house was a mess.