Saa..
“Dada duta dangor gakhir saa diok …”, Abhijeet shouts out to Tushar da in Assamese even as he knows that both of them are Bengalis. He sits down at his favourite table in the University canteen to talk to Neha, who is from Bihar and is all curious as to what this protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act is all about. She is not able to understand how the anti-CAA movement in Assam is different from everywhere else in India. The melancholy of the breezy day quite matches the frame of mind Abhijeet is in. As he laments the opening up of long-buried wounds, he cannot but recollect his experience of growing up in Shillong. “Realities for me are different Neha, while I understand the just Assamese right to protect their cultural identity, my opinions are clouded by what I have seen.” It was Shillong of the 1990s when rock and roll meant rebellion and India was an accident. The locals would proudly exclaim – Khasi by blood, Indian by accident! Abhijeet had had his upbringing in a di