The day before yesterday, India witnessed another general strike. A general strike is not new to me. I grew up in a communist Bengal. I’ve seen many strikes during my teenage years. After coming to power, TMC has somehow able to curb down the age-old, ineffective politics of strike.
Here, I will share my experience of facing a strike when I was a kid.
I was around 9-10 years old at that time and I was at a primary school. The communist was in power and their favorite thing was to call a strike. The strike meant a complete closure of everything. Zero availability of public transport, closure of markets, etc. A complete closure. If anyone tried to bring out his vehicle or opened his shop, communist cadres used to force them physically to reverse. Their intention was to show that everything was closed, meaning the strike was successful. The particular strike I’m talking about here was called abruptly, giving no time to people to reschedule their plans.
My school was 15 minutes walking distance from my home and most students of the school were from the nearby locations. It means that the students and their families were not dependent on public transport. The School administration was aware of the fact. Still, the last moment announcement from the Communist party put the school admin in real trouble as on the strike day they had an exam prescheduled. Though the sudden call for strike put the school admin really in the problem, they decided to go with their schedule. It was the last day of school before the Puja vacations. So the school admin was not in a position to change the exam date. It would also look bizarre to conduct just an exam after the Puja vacation. So they kept the school open, knowing that students would come from nearby locations. It meant I had to go to the school to sit for the exam.
However, on the same day, I had to attend my cousin's sister’s birthday party at my uncle’s place which is around half an hour drive from my school. My aunt was supposed to pick me from school and take me to the birthday party direct. It was the plan. However, the strike changed everything. Knowing that there will be no public transport, my aunt personally hired a rickshaw puller for a good amount of money. The rickshaw puller agreed to earn some extra amount of money on a strike day. The rickshaw puller told my aunt that he knew some roads where will be no picketing of communist cadres to stop vehicles.
At the time of reaching school, they, my aunt, and the rickshaw puller found no barricading of the communist cadres. But at the time of returning, I and my aunt saw the real face of the communist cadres. Communist cadres had completely captured the streets by that time. They stopped our rickshaw and asked where we were heading to. After knowing that we were heading towards a birthday party, they got angry. However, they didn’t show their anger on us, but on the poor rickshaw puller. They asked him why he had brought out his rickshaw. The rickshaw puller was flabbergasted. He had no idea what to do. A few minutes later, few cadres started beating him. They slapped him, kicked him, and punched him on his face. He asked for mercy. But commies are commies. When their ‘quota’ of violence was completed, we were given permission to leave the place. My aunt told me because I was an underage boy and accompanied by a woman, they didn’t barge onto us.
And the rickshaw puller did take us to my uncle’s place but only with a bruised face and scars in his mind.
(Image Source: Deccan Chronicle)
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