Nikhil Khasnabish

(“The Boycott” is a story of kindness, forgiveness, and hope. The students boycott the protagonist because he is against the Assam Agitation and has an affair with a girl. At its peak, he once considers complaining to the school principal. Then he decides to pardon them and hopes that his well-wishers will be friendly to him again.)

Sumit entered the classroom. The students began to unexpectedly stream out just on his entry. Then was he also boycotted? The dullards had discovered his weakness! So they’d written these defamatory words about Dolly and him, on the walls of the classroom. Should he stumble over this weakness?  It wasn’t his weakness. It was rather his strength. Love is strength. Not weakness. Should he complain about these writings to the principal? This time, he should pardon them and contain himself calmly. He left the classroom and entered the common room. He sat in his chair. With a deep sigh, he put his head on the folded hands on the table. The agitation was rocking the whole State. Many students of their college were also in the agitation. They thought the agitation rightful. So they took pride in blacklisting and boycotting their opponents. They identified him as one of their opponents. In their opinion, he was none but Badan Barphukan, the bete-noire in the history of Assam. The agitators called their opponents Badan Barphukans. He raised his head. Some students were shouting jai aai Aham in front of the principal’s office, as a part of their routine, with their patriotic fervour. The people, who were doing this agitation and feeding it with donations and collections, didn’t really understand what they were doing. This agitation would ruin the Assamese. His prophecy would come true. This agitation was nothing but a political abracadabra. A courageous man upholds his views, not yielding to pressures and threats. He was a courageous man. Though he didn’t care about this agitation, he couldn’t help worrying about Dolly’s activities and behavior. She didn’t try to understand him. He tried to wean her away from the agitation and failed. Since he was in deep love with her, he couldn’t wipe her out of his mind. Their love gradually bloomed like a flower. Listening to his lecture, on the very first day, as a Major student of BA First Year class, she felt attracted to him. For some days, she hesitated to express her feelings to him because she didn’t know whether he was married. Her unexpectedly quick introduction to Romola, her classmate, dispelled all the doubts from her mind. She wrote him a letter. He hesitated to answer the letter. But her strikingly attractive figure, the drops of sweat on her face, like dew drops on rose petals, her bright, large eyes, studied brows, shampooed hair, sharp nose, pearly teeth, her hands and feet showing the good results of careful manicure and pedicure and intelligence ultimately influenced his mind. He answered her second letter with the emotional exuberance of a young lover. He wasn’t ashamed of his love. He raised his head, gently rubbed his itching eyes with the backs of his hands and then looked at Dilip Datta, who was writing something with ripples on his forehead. When Dilip Datta looked up from the paper, Sumit smiled at him. Dilip Datta did not reciprocate the smile. He often sat by Sumit. He inquired about the progress of his thesis. He never behaved toward him, like that. Sumit felt hurt. Then did Dilip Datta also boycott him like the other colleagues? What did make him change so suddenly? Any sudden change is transient. Dilip Datta would become friendly with him again. The student leaders were not good orators. They made the speeches, gesturing to tear the Constitution of India into pieces only to rouse the rabble. He loathed those rabble-rousers. The masses were going against the State and themselves. They were sort of hypnotized. Their minds were swayed by the activities of the ominous forces. He raised his head. He got up, looked around and went out, the books in his left hand.