My Story:
My Story:
I desired to pen it down since
long and finally did it. However, the present development alerted and
accelerated me to write it down and share my views with all of you.
Early days
I born and brought up in a
remote village of West Bengal in the late ’80s. Well, just an example to illuminate
its remoteness; when I was in the village there was no electricity, I have
witnessed what it’s called study in the lampshade as we used to study in the light of kerosene oil we
called “lamp”, There was poor connectivity or nearly no road to big cities,
forget about telephone or internet. In addition, my family (my parents and 4
siblings) belong to far below the poverty line even lower than some shrewd
politicians mentioned. I discreetly
remember I used to have income certificate of my father, the only earning
member of the family, of 600,00 INR/month; you read it right, six hundred
Indian Rupees per month, not Dollar, Euro or Pound. I am the eldest son a poor
rickshaw puller. Can anyone tell me whether it is possible to raise children
with this money?
Why to Study?
I was always interested to
study well, I knew somehow from a very young age that education is the main
route to fight with this poverty. I studied hard, scored very well in 10th
Standard from my village and it was second-best score so far from the school
for its entire history. Despite having the best score and great academic
interest, my parents did not have any penny to spend on me or to send me to
cities to pursue higher education. After waiting and moving around here and
there for six months, I came in contact with nice people, yes they do still
exist in the crowd of selfish people.
Prof. Tapas Kumar Basu, one devoted teacher of political science (Ram
Mohan College, University of Calcutta), extended his hands of support to
provide me education which was and is my life. Although, being a left-oriented personality he had the opportunity to influence me with his ideology as he was my
guardian as well, but he never did that, and I started questioning people for
their misdeed right from there. He and his family members accepted me like
their own son; never discriminated never considered me to be “untouchable” (‘achout’). They provided me shelter, food
and guided me to lead a decent life. How many of you who count themselves as
NATIONALISTS have done these types of work even though you have so much land,
huge house or big bank balance!!!
JNU over IIT
After finishing my undergrad
from University of Calcutta, I was selected for Masters in IITs and JNU; I
opted for JNU considering the vibrant campus, quality education, low
expenditure and world-class teachers. ON the other hand, even though I had
desire to go to IIT, I could not do that because the expenditure was so high, I
needed loan and who will provide me that when I didn’t have any property in my
name. JNU is a place which welcomes people with diverse background whole
heartedly. Today sitting in one of the
best places in the world (Munich), I am writing it that choosing JNU was the
best decision, so far, I have ever made in my entire life…
There in JNU, I met so many
people so many teachers helped me in a different way, some financially some
mentally and some techniques.
JNU is not a den of Naxals
Someone mentioned that in JNU
“Lefts are too liberals and Liberals are too Leftists!”. I would say he is right, but the campus is
not all about lefts, there is ideology ranging from left, right to the center.
Each of the ideology has its own space to speak and dissent. And for your
kind information, my dear fellas who think JNU is the den of Naxalism, no you
are 100% wrong. Even though there are some extreme leftists whose thoughts
might be similar to those of the Naxals but their number is so less that it’s
negligible. It’s like Delhi's example of being the worst in terms of crime against
women, that does not mean that everyone is a rapist there. There are leftist
organizations like AISA, AISF, SFI, etc. which are student wings of mainstream
left organizations. There is fare share of the vote to the ABVP which is student
wings of RSS and at the moment very fewer students are inclined to NSUI, the
student's wings of Indian National Congress. What makes JNU so unique is, all
these diverse views coexist without creating a ruckus on the campus like at
many other institutes. I remember so vividly that there is a tradition of
presidential debate where candidates from all the parties have to go through a
round of debate among themselves and have to answer the questions from the
audience!
I was always touched by their
love for humanism! What is a nation if there is no humanism? What is a nation
if the poor are treated like animals? What is a nation if there are so much
caste and societal discrimination? My dear NATIONALIST friends, please think
about it. And Yes! JNU taught me all these and inculcated all the good values.
JNU is a true nationalistic Institute
I have so many friends who
came from different parts of the country, starting from Kanyakumari to Kashmir
and Nagaland to Gujrat. We all are so proud to be JNUite, so proud to be Indian
together. There are students from all religions, all castes, and we never ask
anyone which caste they belong to! We all enjoy celebrating Durga Puja (mostly
celebrated in Bengal), Pongal, Dusshera, Diwali, Kalipuja, Pihoo, Eid,
Christmas and what not and that too with equal emphasis!
Why JNU is important?
JNU has provided us space
where one expresses his/her thought without fear and taught us to ask a question to
all the wrongs with logic. Yes, it’s also taught us free space of freedom of
expression comes along with responsibility too. JNU taught me how to think of
other people, think of humanity, think of Nation and think of India. It teaches
us to accept anything and everything after questioning until when you get
satisfied. Today, I reached here mostly due to JNU and my guardians. I know
that I am not the only one. There are lots of ‘me’s whose parents do not afford
to provide them quality education even though they deserve it, JNU makes it
possible. It has the policy to integrate from each corner of India. JNU shows
you the path, gives the hope of light. It provides reservation not only on the
basis of backwardness of castes but also deprivation points which correspond
to the backwardness of the candidate’s residency, or previous study place. JNU
is JNU, the best University of India and one of the best in Asia. Beware that shutting down JNU means denial to
many of the underprivileged students like “me” to fulfill their dreams. Do not dare to change JNU…If you want to shut down, shutdown the biased news channels and biased administration (like mute
spectator Delhi Police)!
JNU creates history by making
great minds for the country as well as for the world who are not only visionary
policy makers, or leaders of the fields but also a lot of social workers who
are constantly working for the upliftment of the backward society.
Finally, I need not feel to
tell the people how much I love my country, my people; how much I cherish their
company! I was selected long back for PhD in Germany, however, I didn’t join,
and instead I did it from JNU, thinking to stay there as long as possible!
JNU is a place where the
neglected part of the society can dream to be not neglected anymore. Where the people
from the marginal part of the society can dream to become an important person
of the country as well as the world. JNU is a place where the blind can see
through others’ eyes! And the sleeping person can wake up with enlighten views!
I stand by JNU with my whole
heart, mind and body… #saveJNU #StandbyJNU, #MyJNUMyPride,
