Right In the Midst Of the Mayhem

I decided, once again post lunch to get to the depth of this chaos that had surrounded the streets around us and brought life to a grinding halt. So armed once again with my camera, my mobile phone rendered useless as a communication device due to the jammed network was left deep in my pocket.

I crossed Mullick Bazar crossing, where I had ventured a little while back, and headed towards Park Circus. Crossing the barricade I could see a bus at nearly 90 degrees to the road in the distance. So while I walked down the deserted road with all it's shops with their shutters pulled down and the few people lining the streets stealing strange glances at me headed in the direction of the madness, I kept looking back over my shoulder knowing that i was leaving all safety behind me at that barricade. There was a tingling sensation in my stomach, but I had already come to far to turn back and now as I came closer to the bus I could catch glimpses of the huge crowd behind it.

Once I came upon the blue bus, I noticed it was one of the four that had been mutilated in the mob frenzy. I stopped and clicked and walked towards the epicentre of this mob-quake, the 7 point Crossing at Park Circus. It was a sea of people, mostly young Muslim men. So I started clicking and made the mistake of making eye contact with one angry young man that seemed to be inciting the rest of his followers. Wielding a Stick he promised to tear down the City if he had to and then our eyes met. And they all surrounded me and inquired if I was a Journalist. I quickly Stepped back and away and told them I was independent and didn't report for anyone in particular and they all asked me to take more pictures and tell the story right. They then seemed to get charged up with my presence there taking pictures that they seemed to be fueled now to indulge in some more mayhem. The group suddenly swelled to over two-dozen from just a handful that had accosted me and headed towards a bus to cause some more damage, but we held back by some of the elders in their white beards and sent to a side.

I decided I had see enough and headed back down the road to Mullick Bazar. I was walking along four youth who seemed to be discussing how they had been called to participate in a "Chaka Roko" (Basically bring traffic to a standstill) and how it had erupted into a full-blown riot. As I approached I saw an Army Truck come around the corner and thought there goes. The city is going to go into curfew. It's only when it came closer that I noticed it was a school bus for army kids. Phew!

Finally at the barricade I noticed a Sergeant leaning against his bike and talking to some of the crowd discussing with them how things had gone out of hand. I took the picture because of the Bike, one that I have always loved, the Rajdoot Yamaha RD 350.

Oh and finally all this trouble is because Ms. Taslima Nasreen has been allowed to stay in Kolkata and the Muslims aren’t too happy about that. So that's what's was scribbled all over the roads with red bricks; Slogans slandering her and our Chief Minister.