The title is not a question I ask of any of my countrymen.
It is a question I keep asking myself and keep getting asked. Why did you go
there? What do you think this will achieve? How do you feel inside? Do you
think it is going to be worth it? I do not have a coherent answer to any of
this because there are none. These questions cannot be answered in a word or
sentence as it needs more. I am not even sure if I have an answer but I shall
try. Am not writing this to brag, am not writing this cause to be in Shahabagh
might be considered to be the "it" thing as I have heard again and
again the last four days. I am trying to
write this to express what I feel.
Our generation is said to be the one which is saturated. We
just sit by and watch the world go by safely ensconced in our little bubbles.
Not giving a damm. Hell I have ranted myself hoarse about this for as long as I
can remember. I have stayed most of my life outside this country which made me
think I was different in that aspect but today I stand corrected. Today I stand
humbled. Today I can hope to have faith
again. I don't know what the end result of all this movement will be. It will
probably achieve nothing But today my generation showed the world. They won't
stand silently by, they won't keep quite. They to believe in taking a stand.
Call them immature, Call them utopian or emotional but they will speak out
against wrong. They will take a stand
and make their voices heard. I feel proud to say that I belong to this generation.
Today I won't have it any other way.
So, written above was a jumbled thought process of what's
going on in my mind right now.
I was lucky to be born in the family that I am. I was lucky
enough to be loved for who I am. I was lucky because even though I was sent
abroad from a very young age my parents never let me forget my country, they
never let me forget the struggle the country had to endure for its birth what
they had to endure. As I mentioned above I was asked today repeatedly by
different people why I went there. Frankly speaking I can't come up with a
specific answer even now. Putting it as coherently as I can. I went because I
could not stand by and watch this go on anymore. I went because my conscience
demanded I do not keep quite. I went so that I can believe once more. I went so
that years from now when asked I can proudly say that I did not just stand by.
That even if on a minute scale I protested. I can proudly say I was there at
Shahabagh that day. I was there at Shahabagh that month, I was there at
Shahabagh that year. I was there when the youth of Bangladesh woke up.
What I saw astounded me, what I saw cannot be put to words.
I saw young and the old, I saw men and women unite as one. They had one identity,
not that they were bangalees, more than that they where people who have had
enough, they where people who simply couldn't keep quite anymore they were
people who had become sick with our society and they were people who had kept quiet
for simply too long.
For me Shahabagh does not represent the single demand of
capital punishment for all Rajakars. I have no doubt that it is the least that
they deserve. Shahabagh represents a common conscience of the masses, it
represents a warning to the ruling classes do what you want but once our
patience runs out be careful of what you have done. For there is no court
greater or stronger than that of the people.
There were no political banners or parties at Shahabagh
today. But there were people who belonged to different political alignments
(even if those alignments were not voiced out loud). Today these people did not
care about their differences. For once they were together on one issue. They
were together on one common platform. They cared about one thing. "Capital
punishments for war criminals" "No more politics on religious grounds,
no more Jamaat, no more Shibir." This has been shouted out for the last 96
hours and hopefully will be shouted out till it is heard.
I have been trying to write this article for the last four
hours but I still can't put my thoughts into words. Today I understand what my
parents generation felt in 1971. Today my questioned was answered "What
would my generation have done during 1971"? We might not have had the
courage that they did. We may not have the strength or the zeal that they have
but we will no longer sit idly by. Today I can proudly say "Ami 71 tor er
9 mash dekhi ni, Kintu ami 2013 r February mash e jonotar gonojagoron
dekhechi".(I haven't seen the 9 months of freedom struggle in 71, but I
have seen the awakening of the masses in February 2013.) Very few people have the privilege but I can
say both proudly and humbly: Today I have been a part of history, today I was
there when history was created at "Sadhinota Projonmo Chottor."
