Riot Experience

Imagine an innocent man being showered with kerosene by a group of slayers. His charred body running on open street with a fearful scream, crying for help. Well it’s not a nightmare but a reality which still can be seen in India during riots. Pune was under curfew for two days due to disturbances in some parts of the city. It’s not just Pune, but whole Maharashtra experienced the panic.

The memories of 2002 Gujarat riots flashed back before me. I was in second year of college pursuing the Engineering Degree. There was a college bus which picked us up from Ahmadabad and traveled 120 kms till college. The bus used to travel through few sensitive parts of the city.

It was one pleasant morning, we were traveling listening to radio mirchi and unaware of what massacre had occurred at previous midnight in a particular area. The road was traffic less and the street was waking up because of the sound of bus. People were gazing at the bus as if it contained 100 assassins. The driver felt the sensitiveness of the situation and switched off the radio. Students in terror were looking out of window wishing everything would go fine. However it didn’t!

The bus suddenly came to halt. Students inside the bus felt a thin shiver in their body. I was sitting on the last seat as always. Three muscular dark colored men entered the bus barking out slogans. A commanding voice, from one of them, demanded everyone to be seated and not to say a word. It was complete silence which broke with the foot steps of one of those religious fighters. He had a huge knife, almost equal to a sword, in his right hand held tight up in the air. His left hand had curved strong and big fingers as if looking for a neck to hold and cut it off with sword. Who would be that victim? Me? Anyone else? Or all?!!! The deeper he entered in the bus, more did the students tremble. It was a night mare to imagine the touch of a thin lined sharp sword on the neck. As he came nearer to the last seat, where I was sitting, I could see a tiny drop of red liquid trying to escape from sword and fall down. Was it blood? (off course duh) . However, I bet he didn’t require a sword to kill anyone. His fearful red eyes throwing fire balls were enough to kill anyone with terror. After reaching at the end of bus, he glanced at each one of us sitting on the last seat. The moments were terrifying since we never knew which one would be the last moment of our life. However, when he felt that none of us is harmful, he turned to go back. It was then an idiot college mate “N”, sitting on second last seat tried to act over smart and spoke loudly “Jai Ramji ki”.

The beast turned back! He stared at “N” for seconds as if a lion watching his prey waiting for the right time to attack. “N” realized his mistake, curved his body and tried to move a little towards the window. “T” sitting beside “N” seemed as if would die of fear even if someone suddenly touched him. I felt my throat to have jammed and couldn’t swallow the saliva. However, due to god’s grace, the giant broke his contact of eyes with “N” and went straight back to the driver. He had a small chat with the driver who explained that we were college students. The religious fighter directed him the safe way to move out the area and in 1.5 hours we were in college sharing the terrifying experience with others.