That Black Day

The Setting

Monday, June 9, 2014. Life had been moving in its own pace. There had been a sort of tranquility. But it had not been destined to last long. The tranquility had just been an illusion. Some students studying Post-Graduate in Micro-biology at Tri-Chandra College had called out a strike at 1:00 pm. That had when the darkness unveiled itself.

The day had been bright, sky clear-except for some spots of clouds. The strike had been called for an hour which meant no vehicle would be allowed to pass through that route for an hour. People would have to face problems. Meanwhile, within five minutes of the call of the strike, some cadets of Nepal Police had entered the Campus premises and had started beating up students. Some of them were taken on to the now desolated road and keeping them ahead, the callers of the strike were attacked. There was a sort of war between both the sides. Students hurled bricks and stones at the Police and the Police charged at them. Had only the strike-callers been arrested, the matter would have been different, but whatever happened next was a sort of madness- an absolute insanity!

The Riot

While hurling at the strike-callers, the Police entered the College premises- first the Saraswoti Sadan wing and sorted out Micro-biology students. They were taken out from classrooms, laboratories and libraries and made to kneel down on the ground. Some of them were beaten up for having dusty hands. The Police had entered Peace Zone without permission and beaten up unconcerned students. I call them unconcerned and innocent because they did not even know that a strike had been called up. The students who were nagged out of the classrooms were Graduate level students. The Police had blindly striked at some students which had made almost made them unconscious.

Not only the students of Micro-biology but those of other faculties had also been terrorized. The Department of Geology at Ghantaghar wing too had been attacked. The students in the laboratory were beaten up by the Police without any concern or hearing. Many of the students who had been attacked by the Police were even taken into custody. Some of them were tortured there as well. All the arrested students were left by ten-thirty in the evening. The amount of physical and psychological tortured they had to face is indescribable.

The Conclusion

The number of students injured was about 200 of which a dozen were seriously wounded. The Police promised to provide compensation for the injured ones. I don't know if they apologized for the sort of insanity they showed but the students too are not willing to take any further action- they are studying in the College to secure their career, not to fight with the police. The issue, however, did not catch media attention. A few off-steam TV channels and a few online newspapers provided some news. In spite of of such a violent Police action at the heart of Kathmandu, the amount of priority given to the news was nominal. After the mini-riot ended, I had a very bad feeling, "If such a large group can be suppressed in the heart of capital Democratic Republic country, what might have happened to the people at rural areas during insurgency?"
After ten days, the thought still brings chills to my heart.*

* The above description is a true event and not a fiction. It is based on my talks with some of the victimized students. I had witnessed the aftermaths of the riot. The news story is available at :http://www.onlinekhabar.com/2014/06/208812/


   

The Losers: A Fiction

         It's the end of the season. We did well this time. Our soccer team, Shadows first time in the league history won the Eagles. They were the best last season and were unbeaten since last one hundred matches. In the first leg match they had thrashed us with score of 6-0. It was quite humiliating because the whole leg we played well and were in the second position. But we did not lose hope, so the victory in the last match of the league became ours.

          Everyone was celebrating. The Coach had thrown a party to celebrate the first victory over the Eagles. He was extremely happy because in his fifteen years of career in the Shadows, the Eagles were defeated for the first time. I, as the captain of the team was called to make a victory speech. I was not prepared because the Coach had told that just at the beginning of the party. I was not sure what to say but went on the dais and started giving the speech which was as much as I remember like this:

          "I'm pleased that we won the Eagles. It was my dream since I joined this club as a professional. They were the best but we were better than the best. I thank Mr. Coach for the guidance and Matthew for his remarkable goal…"

    

          I was lost in emotions during the speech and I can't remember much of what I said but I did mention about Ricardo, the Assistant Coach who had improved our techniques and made us victorious in every match of second leg. After he came to the team, the league started to become exciting. None of the matches was predictable. One way or the other, the predictions came out to be wrong. The Eagles were expected to win every match but they lost two and most of their matches in second leg were drawn. In the end, our points leveled and then we got chance to beat them and we did it.

          Our Coach spent most of the time on talking about Ricardo and praised him for the success he gave to the team. Actually, Ricardo was not there in the party. I can't tell why but I think that he was busy packing as he was leaving the city early morning. I had hoped to see him in the party but he did not come. Our goalkeeper, Carlos told me that Ricardo wouldn’t come to meet us again. I got stunned because the team had won because of him and the hero of celebration was absent- actually he would not show his face again. I was quite confused and could not understand the reason he had to leave the Shadows that way.

     The night of celebration was over. I woke up in my home after a long sleep and hastily went in front of the TV. I wanted to see the news on victory of our team. I saw that the news was on our team but not the victory. I saw Ricardo being nagged. The crowd was going mad; people were throwing bottles and cans over Ricardo. He looked sad and lost. I didn't understand what to do. As I tried to ring my coach, I heard from news reader:

       "The MOST WANTED match fixer; Ricardo has been arrested for fixing matches for the Shadows. He, who had been searched by the INTERPOL for five years, was arrested on the basis of suicide letter written by Danny, the Eagles' captain. This can lead the Shadows to the prohibition to play any match in any tournament for at least five years..."

          I couldn't listen anything else. The day before we were the greatest team and our players were better than the best but today we had become the greatest losers of all times and the “hero of the celebration” ended up our careers with a shame.