Poems from prison

One day in 2020 some people locked Gulfisha Fatima into her houseGulfisha grew up in Seelampur Delhi A first generation learner she had a deal with her parents She could study as much as she wanted In 2020 she was finishing her MBA and applying for jobs Then the amendments to the CAANRC act were proposed and protests against its exclusionary intent broke out across the country but especially in Delhi These protests attracted many young people looking for a more expansive and inclusive politics of fairness creativity and love Gulfisha became involved with the protests A passionate and articulate speaker she grew into a young leader In any other times this journey would inspire people fill them with admirationBut these are not those timesOnce Gulfisha was locked inside her house by miscreants trying to prevent her from going to an antiCAA protest ldquoWe had to break the locks of our own houserdquo her parents said Not long after on April 9th 2020 Gulfisha was arrested along with several young activists on allegations of inciting riots in North East Delhi riots in which a police affidavit itself noted that there was widespread loss of life and property of Muslims A riot in which BJP MLA Kapil Mishra was recorded instigating crowds shortly before violence broke out but it was a group of young activists committed to the spirit of the Constitution who were arrested Some of them eventually were released on bail after over a year That has not happened for GulfishaBail hearings are postponed benches are changed and an endless deferral of process has kept her in jail for what will be 5 years on April 9There are so many stories of injustice and heartlessness around us that perhaps to hear one calls up helplessness even just to feel Gulfisha wrote about waiting for bail ldquoAfter some years you just accept it Jail is the best place to make you helplessrdquoI am not sure which jail we are in that we should feel helpless or numbBut many young people donrsquot volunteer for this imprisonment They donrsquot stop feeling because the world is trying to train us into numbness For this they attract the full force of the State In the US we watch students being arrested and deported for peaceful protests or even social media posts They persist Last week we saw horrifying videos of wildlife fleeing in panic as the Telangana government bulldozed 400 acres of land in Hyderabad Central University for software parks Seems neither diversity nor biodiversity are palatable to the powers that be or perhaps for the powers to beBut students protested They posted videos The peacocksrsquo screams penetrated the impassive walls of the courts and there was an interventionIn jail Gulfisha began writing poems ldquoFor the history exam everything I would learn by heart but would always forgetthe datesI forget now almosteverythingI rememberonly the dates tareeq as in court datesrdquo A social media campaign is asking that people read Gulfisharsquos poems and post videos on April 9Who can say if poems can penetrate injustice as peacock screams miraculously have But if you wonder what it means to be a young person today the poems with their ache their continuing idealism will ask you to confront this question with all the difficult feelings we cannot afford to ignoreParomita Vohra is an awardwinning Mumbaibased filmmaker writer and curator working with fiction and nonfiction Reach her at paromitavohramiddaycomatOptionskeyd0ddb8ef8f1a62a8cdd22fac27fc5ea7formatiframeheight90width728params