Jailhouse rock..

Sorry for this delay folks, dint have internet access in prison so could not post. yes you read it right i said prison, i along with 5 other like minded friends climbed up a 250 ft smoke stack of a thermal power plant in kolaghat, west Bengal, and painted "SMOKING KILLS" each alphabet around 7 ft, yes it was big. we did it to save the world, we did it to communicate the threat of climate change looming large on our lives. and the result, we were slapped charges of criminal trespass in a protected area which is a non bailable offense with a maximum imprisonment of 10 years.

Friday 12th of October, we were presented in court for our heroic act of trying to save the world in a protected area, no doubt intentions were all over the newspapers but the judge needed to sleep over it to make his mind for granting bail, so we were the guests of of state government for a weekend, now as we proceeded towards the prison which is right next to the court all the gory stories that we hard heard thats happens inside a cell started running as a slide show in front of me, i wish hadn't seen chandni bar, i wish i hadn't shaved whatever stubble that i had...before entering those 25 ft walls all we wanted is few packets of cigarettes to smuggle in with us as thats the currency my friend that will save your ass in prison, and another piece of advice given by a wise man " if you drop a soap in the prison, don't bend to pick it up".

We entered the first gate and in all there were 16 under trials, may be 17 i don't remember our contact details were entered in the register and we headed for the main cell, we were 4 guys and two girls, we requested the prison guard to ensure that four of us stay together, all 16 crossed the second gate and entered a compound which had a well in front lots of trees, the walls were painted in brick red color, we walked straight for 20 ft then turned left towards our cell, there were inmates waiting at the door to welcome new under trials, "i really wish i hadn't shaved"

one by one every one entered the cell, it was a 20ft x 70 ft cell, the flooring was of cemented and the ceiling was around 25 ft high so that no one can reach out to the fan and try suicide, the gate to the cell was to left side as we entered what we saw was a small praying space which had photos idols of all Hindu gods, a little ahead was a small box which was covered with a cloth kept at a height of 4 feet, that box looked like a television but i wasn't sure, on top of the box was a FM radio receiver and below the the box was a big speaker which would have been 200 watts..

all four of us were told to sit right opposite the entrance which was a privilege because to our extreme end were two small cubicles one was for peeing and other one for shitting, every new inmate who is not a notorious gangster or loaded with cash has to start his stay from next to the toilet and then earn his way up till the gate. Why were we privileged??? well i wasn't thinking about that, all i was concerned is who is gonna be their bitch for the night, i would have paid a thousand bucks that night to sleep in the middle...

all the eyes were stuck on us as were clearly a misfit there, boyish looks except for gene who with his multiple piercings and many square inches of tattoo looked like an under trial from Thailand. In all there were 36 under trials for murder, rape, kidnapping, stealing, sodomy....one of them approached us with a Bengali news paper in hand which had photos of three of us with a story..every one knew what we were in for and it was well appreciated, with all the questions in mind we sat very close to each other and slowly went off to sleep, suddenly we were woken up by an inmate who offered us two alluminium plates, one with sabzi and other with dusty hard chapatis, but i have to tell you it wasn't that bad as shown in films, quantity of food was never a problem and quality was never a question as we dint have a choice. Every one started spreading their blankets and we were waiting for ours..when asked if we would be getting blankets too, one guy on our right said, "you can sleep here", he had spread out blanks for us on the floor. i was shit scared "why on earth will he do that?" who will be the prison bitch amongst us?? " The radio was tuned in to 107.8 power fm which played both Hindi and english songs. i had secured my place in the middle dozed of listening to bollywood songs....

when fast asleep a scream woke me up from my ass saving dream..what i saw was a man being beaten black and blue by the self appointed rulers of the cell who had earned their way to be the kings of that world. the man was being beaten because it was his third visit inside for stealing, he was being beaten cos he was told last time not to steal, not to come back, he was told to work hard and earn his living, he was told to value freedom and liberty and he had broken the rules. After the punishment what followed was explaining the rules to the new inmates..

Rule 1) every one will sit and pee and use plenty of water to keep it clean, one has to wash hands and feet properly.

Rule 2) every one has to wake up at 5:45 in the morning for prayers which happens to be national anthem.

Rule 3) There are timings for everything in prison which has to be strictly followed.

then every one was sent back and we got back to sleep, the lights are never turned off in the cell as some one might try to kill himself or others.

The next morning we followed the routine, 5:45 counting of all inmates, 6:15 national anthem in the compound, 7:30 tea with puffed rice, 12:00 Rice Dal sabzi, 4:00 tea 8:00 dinner, before beyond or between these hours were conversations with inmates, their stories, playing carom, chess, listening to radio...couple of hours sleep too in the afternoon.

its a different world all together in there, it has its own set of rules which shouldn't be broken, it has stories that ready made scripts for a movie. I saw the definition of friendship in prison, there was one guy who was in for 11 months as he had helped his friend elope with a minor girl and get her married. when i asked him "you knew that she was a minor, so why did you do it?? you were bound to get in trouble." he said " i did it for my friend." he said it with a smile and his head held high...

Different types of people in for different reasons, some good some bad, some holy....there is only one law that exists in there and that is of good and bad, inmates who are in for rape are treated the worst, on Saturday night a new inmate was made to strip, shag and drink his semen, his crime was that he had blinded his girlfriend by throwing acid on her face.

all the stories that we had heard of in the prison, came true in those three days in front of our eyes, but the four of us were taken extremely good care of....i ended up asking on Monday morning just before we left for court to hear our bail application. i asked Raju who was one of the head guys in our cell " you guys are making people clean toilets, fill water, you beat them, make them eat their semen...but why this ultra special treatment for us?" and what he replied was what made me even more proud, he said " we are not bad people, we beat the shit out of some inmates cos they deserve it, people get what they deserve, last time a bunch of villagers came from nandigram who were fighting to save their land, and we treated them like gods, you guys are fighting for us, for our future, why will we treat you badly??"

We were granted bail on Monday evening, before leaving that place we handed over 2 kgs of onions and chillies, cos if you are privileged in prison you will get onions and red chillies to go with every meal..