//I am a Bengali. I was born in Cooch Behar (now in WB) and since my father was posted in various parts of the #NorthEast, I spent 16 years of my life in that beautiful part of the country, mostly in the lovely little town of Dibrugarh, #Assam.//
//I went to school there, had very good friends, went through all the fond and not-so-pleasant phases of teenage, a decent childhood overall. Back in the day, I sometimes overheard my parents and others talk about the 'Bongali Kheda' (roughly 'Drive the Bengalis Out') movement.//
//It was less of a movement and more of a fundamentalist-fuelled, systematic attack on resident Bengalis, some of who had been living in Assam for many decades then.//
//I distinctly remember at least one riot in which we (including me and my family) were victims. We used to live on Krishna Prasad Road then, in a rented house. News came that hordes of men were coming our way, armed with swords and daggers and wielding sticks and fire torches.//
//I remember so clearly because that was the first time I had heard gunfire outside the movies (we did not have television then). We switched off the lights, Maa and I hid under the bed, Baba stood by the door waiting to pounce on anyone who would break in.//
//I still remember Maa's muffled weeping in the dark. We heard the mob yelling expletives throughout the neighborhood, and even heard voices just outside our window. No one came in. We survived that night.//
//I was too young to understand what was going on. As I grew older, I began to understand. The more I thought about it, the more I felt hurt and a sense of anguish, especially recalling the fear on the faces of the two people I looked up to the most.//
//My father -- a calm, sensible, dignified man -- must have noticed this change in me. One day, he took me to the banks of the Brahmaputra, near a cinema hall whose name I have now forgotten. He pointed towards an open space on the silt-field and said these words...//
//"Several years ago," my father told me, "there used to be a school over there. The headmaster of the school used to be a highly educated Bengali gentleman from Dhaka University. One of his students -- a Bengali colleague of mine -- told me a strange story back in office."//
//Apparently, the headmaster would come to class every morning, and the first thing he'd do was point to certain specific students and say: "You, you, you, and you over there...you boys get out. Studies and school are not for you". Those used to be the #Assamese boys in class.//
//My father then told me something I'll never forget as long as I live. He said, "It's strange how hatred and love are so similar. Love begets more love. Hatred begets more hatred. The history of the world has shown us that this is true. We just have to be patient."//
//"Those men who came looking for us that night did the wrong thing. But their hatred stems from the hatred the headmaster showered upon his students, his own students, young innocent boys who had come to learn from him."//
//"His betrayal and the betrayal of others like him stokes the fire that burns today, long after the man himself has passed away. I want you to understand that just because those men came for us that night, that does not mean all Assamese people around you feel the same way."//
//"Had they done so, at least someone from our neighbours would have told them about us and they would have come in that night. The fact that they didn't is a big thing, and you must remember THAT more than everything bad that happened that night."//
//In my life, I have tried to live by what Baba taught me that day by the banks of the Brahmaputra. I've had wonderful friends in school, friendships I still cherish. Never even once in all the years did I face discrimination...from them, nor from my teachers, or anyone else.//
//I left Assam in '95, have since been in various parts of India, but Assam has shaped my outlook. When I hear someone accuse Assamese of provincialism, I feel like laughing. You mock their Mongoloid features, you call them 'Chinky', you don't know the names of the states...//
//You brand all of them as Nepali, and you dare accuse THEM of provincialism? Please. Lay off. Step back. Let trust and faith be your first impression of people.//
