Adnan Khan, (selfie) from Lucknow, a journalism student at the Mass Communication Research Centre, and my classmate, was trapped inside the central library of Jamia Millia Islamia with tear-gas shells. When he finally escaped, he stood at Zakir Nagar Dhalan, only to encounter two familiar faces equally confused and tense. They were Imaad Ul Hassan, from Aurangabad, and Salim Javed, from Mathura, our classmates. Adnan took them to his rented room in Zakir Nagar. “We stayed together, but we couldn’t sleep the entire night because one of our batchmates was detained by the police, and we were worried,” said Adnan, but the fact that they were together helped them get through the night.
At the same time, Aaqib Fayaz, (in red) another classmate, and Ali Johar, from Calicut in the English department of the college hosted six fellow students, even a day scholar who lives in Faridabad and who couldn’t get home,in their rented place in Batla House. “That day when we were all escaping from campus, we were scared. But we were also happy to see so many localities helping us, asking us if we needed anything,” says Aaqib, adding that the roads were empty with only a few students trying to get home. Many people living close by offered them space to stay. In fact the neighbours gave the group blankets to use for the night. Many professors and alumni living near the campus, also opened their doors to students of the University.
“A number of people reached out through social media offering their homes, but sometimes it was just difficult to reach. Also, since the network was very slow, many messages didn’t reach us,” says Aaqib. He and his friends went out at night to buy food. They cooked Maggi and eggs and the group ate in silence. They too were tense about the boy in custody.
It was also the day people around propped ladders against the college walls, for students to escape from the lawns. They were waiting on the other side with water and biscuits.
At about 9 p.m., we saw similar support when hundreds of people from Delhi colleges and people from civil society come out on a cold night to stand at the Delhi Police Headquarters in protest. There was even one family who came with two young children. Later, at around 3:30 a.m., our classmate was released from custody, luckily with few injuries.
Aaqib is now in my house with my mother plying him with food. He is from Kashmir and while a number of students have gone back to their hometowns, he feels it isn’t safe to return to his.
The author is currently a student at Jamia Millia Islamia
