SATYANESWAN

Since morning on the fourth day of our hunger strike, guardians and relatives of the students started arriving at the college campus. They were worried and excited. They formed groups among themselves and were engaged in agitated discussions. Me and Barun, one of my closest friends, were sitting near the first lobby and witnessing the progress of what was going on. During the last four days we had no visitors from our respective families. Barun belonged to a family of musclemen. Perhaps, expression of affection was not much in vogue there. As for myself, being a fugitive, I did not expect that barring my mother others in the family would be too keen to enquire about me. While on the first lobby, we were spotted by one of our senior professors, who incidentally came out from his office. He found no students nearby other than us. He called us both and started rebuking us for joining the hunger strike. Like all the conservative teachers, he found no virtue in our movement.