Exile by Taslima Nasrin

Author:Taslima Nasrin
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789385990076
Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited
Published: 2016-09-18T16:00:00+00:00

11 December

I would have surely perished if not for my computer and the Internet. I had initially thought to myself, why take the computer along for a two-day trip? It’s not as if I was going to work too much! Then I thought to myself, at least I might write a poem or two. So, I had set out with only my computer.

Work has kept me alive. I remember helplessly crying at the sight of the small cell in Robben Island where Nelson Mandela had had to spend eighteen of his twenty-seven years of incarceration. I remember crying at the thought of what he used to do besides his work in the limestone quarry, only to realize that the tiny lock-up had books and some sparse stationery. Perhaps one can momentarily forget a lot of suffering if one is only allowed the freedom to read and write.

I frequently get calls from Kolkata where people read out articles that have been published in solidarity with me in the Bengali newspapers. These days it is Enamul Kabir who has taken on this task. In the morning, he read out Suranjan Dasgupta’s editorial from Aajkaal where he has cited numerous instances since 1947 where political asylum has been granted to various people, never with any preconditions or prior promise of obedience. Dasgupta has unequivocally declared that it will surely be a condemnable incident if the same is not made available to me in this secular democratic country. I have never met Mr Dasgupta. Yet, so many people like him, people I do not know, have stood by me through this ordeal and have taken a stand against a grievous injustice.

I received a text message from Arundhati Roy: ‘Am in Kolkata. Everybody I meet wants you back here. I am sure it will happen. Stay strong. Am in a crowd. Will call when I can. Lots of love.’ So few words and yet they have brought me so much joy. I had spoken to her on the very first day in this ‘safe house’, all thanks to Karan Thapar. I had told her everything—Hyderabad, my return to Kolkata, the ensuing house arrest, the commissioner’s visit to my house, 21 November, and my forced farewell the very next day. Karan later interviewed Arundhati on his show, The Devil’s Advocate. Arundhati had been fantastic! She confessed that if all the things that had been done to me had happened to her, she would have given up writing to do something else. She also admitted to being suspicious that the entire controversy was a carefully manufactured diversion meant to deflect public attention from the uproar surrounding Nandigram and Singur. The protest rally at Park Circus had been nothing but a rehearsed performance to provide the perfect excuse for driving me out of the state. Already the news of the death of another Muslim youth, coupled with the embers from the Rizwanur murder scandal, had been threatening to upset the Muslim vote bank that had always staunchly supported the Left in Bengal.

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