#can you imagine telling that story to hundreds of scared kids. and getting lunch detention in response

[wormsdyke]

Damn u rlly got detention for not wanting ur school to get shot up

we really did it was bonkers. the protest was planned in advance and the school knew about it so teachers would gently remind us we would get in trouble if we walked out but very few actually discouraged it because, you know, they also didn’t like the idea of getting shot up. the whole thing went pretty well, the local news came to cover it, several students gave speeches, the names of some students and teachers who had recently died in school shootings were read off before a moment of silence, plans were made for further protests and walk outs on a larger scale that went successfully over the next few months. eventually our school principal came out and announced his support and also assured that no students would face disciplinary action for protesting. and then a bunch of us received disciplinary action for protesting. importantly though, not all of us did, seemingly an indiscriminately chosen group of attendees were apathetically punished and no further action, positive or negative, was ever taken. despite being a relatively small scale movement it was probably the biggest movement against gun violence (or for that matter anything remotely leftist) the whole region had seen, being in the red south. which isn’t directly related but does make it sting a little more that the only response was a few lunch detentions that didn’t stick on my permanent record.

[mystech-master]

F/GO High School/Modern AU BS

Me and @rex101111 have been talking about a modern/HS AU ft. as many Chaldean servants as possible. Here are the ideas we came up with (I am pretty much cut and pasting our message convo, so this is a mixture of both me and Rex's ideas):

Gil is the douchbag Senior everyone hates but his dad owns the school or whatever so he can do whatever he wants. The only decent person who willingly hangs out with him is his childhood friend Enkidu who's hoping he can un-douch his bro. He has kid Gil as his little brother and Caster Gil as his older bro who both agree that he sucks (Gil is the loser middle child of the family), Caster Gil wonders what Enkidu sees in his shit head brother. "He's too good for you." "Blow it out your ass." "One day he's going to wise up, see how much of a shit you are, and when you're all alone don't come crying to me." Caster Gil is in college studying political science, Kid Gil goes to a fancy boarding school. Archer Gil goofs off and throws parties

Scathach is a swimming class teacher, mainly b/c I recall underwater training being a part of Cu's regiment under her tutelage. People were jealous of the Cus for like two seconds when they find out the swim teacher is their mom, then they see her having them do an extra twenty laps and ignoring when OG Cu starts floating in the water. "CU DIED!" "YOU'RE NOT HUMAN!" while Scathach is like "you have two seconds to stop playing around before I ACTUALLY drown you" and he's back to doing laps.

Yeah with 4-5 Cus (if you count Setanta from Arcade) that is like 5 brothers.

Nightingale as school nurse, she is friends with Asclepius who works at a hospital associated with the school (strictly professional, but the students think otherwise).

Side note, keep in mind you can have multiple servants be the same type of teacher, just for different classes/grades.

King Hassan is the old Religious History teacher. Every one thinks he's older then the rock is the school is made out of. He has a scary face and a scarier voice but most students consider him the most fair and patient teacher in the whole school. He always gets a lot of food gifts before Ramadan form the students. (A few students, such as the Guda twins and Mash, call him gramps.) The other Hassans are his grandkids, like actual grandkids. He's super strict with them because he expects a lot from them. He always praises them when they do well though. He made sure they ALL got into his class and they've been living in fear ever since. They love their grandpa but by Allah they know not to disappoint him. The only one to ever get out of anything is kid Hassan (one of the hundred face). Cursed Arm is oldest, then Asako (the main hundred face), then Serenity.

"I am very disappointed in ALL of you, have you all lost your heads? I swear I-*to kid Hassan*-ah no Habibi not you you're fine here have a candy-*back to the rest*-I KNOW you're better than this!"

VERY traditional guy, Cursed Arm mutters "Oh for God's sake" while doing a pop quiz and King Hassan looms over him and growls, "No Blaspheming In This Class Room"

For the various Artoria/Arturias, I imagined Lancer and Lancer Alter being sisters, so Saber Alter is a cousin. That leaves everyone else to just be sisters with one brother. Mother Lartoria owns a casino and gas her own yacht in reference to the summer event where she became a Ruler. If you want MHX could be a part of the family as a massive fucking Star Wars nerd. MHXX and MHX Alter are her mom and sister (so MHXX is a third sister for the two Lancer Artorias)

For Irisviel, I remember in one of the Nero Fest things that she was called Therapist Iri. Maybe she starts to get into that b/c she wants to help her adoptive son Shirou (instead of a big fire like in Zero it can be an orphanage fire thing, similar situation but a much smaller scale) , so she is the school therapist/psychiatrist. Like Maruki in P5 Royal.

Iskandar died in his 30s, Waver is around his 30s as Lord El Melloi II. The two are old college friends who still hang out and Alexander is Iskandar’s kid.

If you guys want you can see this as the two being gay dads since I know that ship is popular.

Fran had an abusive father before Babbage and Moriarty got involved. In the og story, Frankenstien has a scientific mindset like his creator, here Fran has a talent in the field, but she also hates it b/c it reminds her of him. Like imagine being talented at the thing your abusive parent was good at/known for. Moriarty tried to get it into her that SHE'S the one with the talent, not her college dropout bum of a father, "From you tell me of him Victor couldn't engineer his way out of an argument with a cat, you have a magnificent mind my dear, not letting it flourish to spite him would be a horrible waste...it's your talent, your skill. Not his." He smiles that smile she loves that scares every one but she knows he only smiles like that when he is absolutely convinced of something, "and you can out perform him without breaking a sweat."

Moriarty teaches Fran sign language while Babbage teaches her some engineering.

Jekyll is going for a major in medicine with a minor in law (in the actual irl story Dr. Jekyll was a doctor in medicine and law).

For science associated servants, you got da Vinci, Babbage, Edison, and Tesla as possible science teachers.

The Jeanne sisters. Without the Avenger BS, the reason Jalter (or Joan as one series of fics calls her) could hate her here is just inferiority complex and being compared to her perfect saint big sister all her life. Joan does have her talents, based on the summer event an, but again she doesn't acknowledge her own talent b/c of her always being compared to her older sister., in the 7 counterfeit events she is a really good artist. And it is the typical thing of Jeanne actually being scared out of her wits of being less than perfect because of all the expectations thrust on her. She gets one A- and runs to the bathroom crying and Joan has to swallow her pride and actually have a conversation with her sister for the first time in years. Jeanne Alter lily puts up Christmas decorations super early, much to Jeanne Alter/Joan's displeasure.

"IT JUST TURNED NOVEMBER CHILL TF OUT!"

"CHRISTMAS!"

Martha is Jeanne's BF since middle school and has this HUGE dog that scares everyone and growls at anyone expect Martha and Jeanne. She calls him Terry.

Rex loves Penthesilea. and we talked at length about the situation between her and Achilles. Can you not tell that he likes a woman who can kick his ass *gestures to all of his Baiken posts*

Rex's idea: I think they had a fight when they were little and Achilles, being a little shit back then, made fun of her for being a girl, and Penth has been sore about it ever since. She keeps running into big misogynistic meatheads that reminded her of that and she just got angrier over the years. She's a wrestler and can knock out just about every dude in school by herself. Achilles is very regretful about back then and wants to apologize but Penth ain't having any of it.

My idea: I thought they were on opposing HS sports teams and when Achilles handed her ass to her he forgot to drink his respect women juice and then Penth got all pissed.

In this AU, Penth and Hippolyta's dad was a general who taught them how to kick the ass of men twice their size since they were seven or something.

Penth surprises everyone when a festival comes up and she gets picked to be the one to organize everything...and does a spectacular job. Another surprise is that she plans on being a business major when she goes to college (Obligatory Amazoness CEO jokes)

Bedivere is the Arturia Pendragon family butler with a prosthetic arm. He's also the security guard, last guy that tried to steal something or cause trouble got slapped right out of the window he sneaked in from.

Francis Drake and Artoria Alter Lancer are work friends (referencing them both being associated with the Wild Hunt in F/GO's lore).

Beni-Enma is the short and shorter tempered lunch lady, last kid who mouthed off at her during lunch got smacked upside the head with her spoon. She's sweet, but if you're in detention and have to help her in the kitchen she's a mini Gorden Ramsey, "IT'S RAW DECHI!!!" She can also come into the home EC class where Shirou is her best student. Also her roasting of the other girls like in her quest. Getting Fs in Beni's class is the worst, because it isn't just an F, it's a meticulous dressing down of exactly why letting into a kitchen should be considered a war crime, dechi.

The three Avenger Nobus are three different people. 1st Ascension is basically Archer Nobu, then you got Oda Kipposhi, and then the mom is Ascension 3 with Demon King Nobunaga. The youngest Ascension 1 Nobu is a musician. Demon King Nobu is one of those "super scary but also super polite people that only makes them scarier" type, basically a female koei Nobunaga from samurai warriors (check out some cutscenes form the games with him, he's a treat).

Imagine Demon King Nobu mom in a business suit.

Suzuka Gozen and Sei Shonagon are the textaholics who always talk in slang to the point of it sounding like they speak a different language. Murasaki is the librarian but Sei is like that ONE student who just makes her job so much harder.

Every week it's "No phones in the library Miss Shonagon." while Sei rolls her eyes and types out twitter post like "fugly ol librarian at my school needs a life lol"

Oui Katsushika is a gifted art student, and her dad (not a floating little octopus), is just a normal dude with a squid/octopus like beard. She's the teacher's pet in De Vinci's art class.

Eresh and Ishtar come from a rich family, Ereshkigal is the older sister so she had a shit load of responsibility to take over the family business while Ishtar basically gets to party her life away. Rin is the cousin they each try and swing their way. Eresh wants Rin to keep up her studies and get into a good university, Ishtar wants Rin to loosen the fuck up and admit that she likes that scrawny Emiya kid already.

BB is the host of a talk show downtown so she is kind of an absentee mom. Meltryllis has prosthetic legs that she specifically asked to be made into stilts b/c she wanted to be taller, and Passonlip has a massive rack that makes life difficult (either people staring, people assuming she's gonna be a home wrecker b/c said staring must be intentional, etc.), and of course he also has prosthetic arms to match her canon claws, obviously not as massive.

Hijikata is a very serious police officer but his wife Carmilla just uses this to have fun in the bedroom. They have two Dobermans. Hijikata's route has him patrolling near the school so most of the kids know as that scary police dude that has a picture of his wife in his pocket. One day a famous Idol called Eli-chan~ (yes spelled with the ~) is about to perform in the town and the kids can't stop talking about her, so Hijikata overhears. But, being the serious dude he is he shrugs it off until he sees a picture of this "Eli-chan~" and realizes it's his sister-in-law that came to visit and suddenly the influx of parasitic paparazzi near his house start making sense.

Carmilla: "Now you see why I hate them?", Hijikata: "No you cannot send the dogs after them honey."

She almost ran one of them over in her, very expensive, car and when that reporter says she should be locked up Hijikata corrects that would only happen if she had hit him...and she would be fined. For littering.

Okita Alter being Hijikata's partner, while Okita is her younger sister who's looked up to Hijikata since she was a little kid but she has asthma and such so she's afraid she might not get accepted.

Sigurd owns a metalworks shop (referencing his myth where he was raised by the dwarf Reginn), he met his wife Brynhildr when she was disowned by her overly controlling father.

Ozymandias, Nitocris, and Cleopatra are all the high board members of a company. Nitocris specifically got wind of Scheherazade's abusive husband situation and after getting said husband arrested, she offered Scheherazade a job.

Atalanta is a college student/TA who worked with Achilles' dad who ends up at their HS for a program or something, Achilles' dad has told him a lot about her.

Amakusa Shirou is an uncle married to the CEO of Babylon Gardens Pharmaceuticals, Semiramis. Semiramis herself is kinda chill if REALLY scary. She had to be pretty cutthroat to get to her position in the company, but Amakusa Shirou helped her mellow out, but she is still a massive tsundere.

"You know you COULD poison their lunch." "Semi, dear, I'm not going to poison my coworker's sandwich for being an ass." "It wouldn't kill them! Just a bit in their peanut better and they'll be stuck on the toilet for a week, no harm no foul."

Rex initially said Taiga would be an overly enthusiastic gym teacher but then I remembered that she was a homeroom/English teacher in Fate canon, but either or can do if you wanna be unique.

For Quetzalcoatl, Wrestling club supervisor when she isn't the senior year gym teacher. Some of the male students laughed that they didn't think a woman would know anything about wrestling. Two piledrives later, the students have earned a new appreciation for the importance on how not to be two pieces of shit. She's big on Lucha as in canon and during Halloween she gets JAGUARMAN to have an exhibition fight with her. They make a show of it but later on Taiga admits that Quatz could have CRUSHED her if they were actually fighting. She takes the wrestling club out for homemade Mexican food after tournaments

For Siduri, there's a bunch of rumors she's dating Caster Gil but it's strictly professional, Caster respects her too much to consider that. Archer Gil hits on her relentlessly, she manages to wound his ego more severely then anyone else simply by being unfailingly polite in her rejections and treating him like what he is, a teenage punk jumping higher than he can handle to land.

Ibaraki is Shuten's adoptive little sister after she was taken from an abusive mother, hence why Ibaraki looks up to her. Ibuki is either Shuten's big sister who had to take on a guardian role, or just her mom. Shuten and Ibuki have a bit of a strained relationship because Shuten saw the way Ibuki acted as they grew up, taking more and more responsibilities onto herself and refusing any distractions. And she decided that her biggest nightmare is to wake up one morning and realize she's turned into Ibuki so she tries to do everything to avoid that, hence their relationship not being the best. Ibaraki is kinda stuck in the middle because she wants to side with Shuten but she sees where Ibuki is coming from. Messy.

Caren is still Kotomine’s daughter, but he isn’t a good dad and in rebellion she sleeps around despite being a woman of god. Including sleeping with local punk Angra Mainyu. Angra Mainyu seems like a bad guy but he has a shit load of issues due to being blamed for everything going wrong in his old town, eventually coming to believe them and thinking he will cause nothing but problems. Caren banging him gives him a type of closeness he’s never felt, but under very warped circumstances.

For the Tamamo family, Vitch totally fucked her way up a corporate ladder or something, imagined Tamamo Cat working at a Cat Cafe if she were a Student. Tamamo no Mae accidentally fed her prev BF a food he was allergic too, and that kind of haunted her and scared her rep. IDK basically she seriously fucked up a previous relationship, either on purpose or accidentally, and that kind of hurts her deeply so she wants to start over with Hakuno.

Nero and Tamamo no Mae are rivals over this one guy.

Kiichi Hougen is the adoptive mom, Benkei is the family friend/uncle, Taira is Ushiwaka's older sister. Taira isn't on the best of terms with her family, some drama way back caused a rift and nowadays Ushi is the only one who's willing to talk to her and visit. Benkei never lets her go alone because he doesn't trust Taira one bit. Taira and Ushiwaka are Kintoki and Tomoe's cousins (I say Tomoe b/c apparently her husband and Ushiwaka were half cousins, with their grandpa having kids with their grandmas. I tried to make a whole family tree out of a few servants).

These are the ideas we had the most to talk about, if you guys have any suggestions for your fav servants in this AU, let either me or Rex know. Or just reblog and say them here. Who knows maybe you have a much better idea for a Servant we already mentioned.

[brajeshupadhyay]

In Bareilly jail, I was the guardian of all Kashmiris, says journalist Qazi Shibli after 9 months of detention under PSA

On 25 April, Qazi Shibli, a south Kashmir-based journalist and editor, returned home after nine month in a prison in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly. It was also the first day of the holy month of Ramzan, bringing much needed joy to the family and to the 28-year-old himself.

Shibli, who runs online news portal The Kashmiriyat, says that he was summoned by a local police station on 27 July last year, after he reported, and later tweeted, a leaked government order on additional troop buildup in the Valley.

The questioning continued for four days, explains Shibli on his website, "I was in the police station and my family was assured that I would be released on [4 August]," he says, "However, then the abrogation [of Article 370] happened, communications were snapped and the rest is history." On 8 August, he was booked under the Public Safety Act and later lodged in a jail hundreds of kilometres away from his home, like hundreds of other Kashmiris — he was among the 412 others also booked under the draconian law.

His PSA charges were revoked on 13 April in an effort to decongest the jails during the COVID-19 pandemic.

His release comes on the heels of news of two Kashmiri journalists — Gowhar Geelani and Masrat Zahra — being booked under the anti-terror law, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The Committee to Protect Journalists that had reported on Shibli's detention and run a campaign for charges against him to be dropped, welcomed his release and called on authorities in Jammu and Kashmir to release award-winning journalist Asif Sultan and put a stop to the misuse of laws to target journalists.

Following his release, Shibli spoke to this journalist about his ordeal, the future of journalism in the Valley and more. Edited excerpts of the interview follow:

Why were you jailed?

Journalistic freedom in India, especially after the BJP came to power in 2014, has been shrinking a great deal. There are many cases like those of Gauri Lankesh and Prasoon Bajpai — whose journalistic freedom was curtailed. In fact, Gauri was killed for her brave journalism.

You are not given any space or grey areas. The government wants us to follow a certain path and tells us to do only one type of journalism.

How did you react after you learned about the PSA against you?

I have done many stories on the PSA and tried to understand what the Act is all about. So, I always had a sense of watching developments from the outside; however, being booked under the PSA gave me a much better idea of the Act from the inside.

I felt very strange. I couldn't believe I had been booked under the PSA. Initially, I had tears in my eyes, but then there was a minor with me and he was smiling. That's when I felt embarrassed that this kid was smiling and I was crying, so I thought it was best to face whatever has to come.

There was a despair that till the previous day I was writing stories about the PSA, but now, I was being detained under the same Act. But that kid brought me out of the despair.

When were you shifted to the Uttar Pradesh jail?

On the morning of 9 August last year, we were taken to Srinagar airport and we had no idea about where we were being taken. For the first two months, we weren't even told where we were lodged. [Later we learned] it was Bareilly District Jail.

Your imprisonment came at a time when communication was snapped in Kashmir.

Our families did not know where we had been taken; they had come with lunch to the police station and were told that we weren't there. It was a time when you wanted to call people and seek help, but that was not happening. And the biggest concern was about how the families would know [of our whereabouts], because is the first thing that comes to your mind during these times.

How difficult was it for your family to come to terms with you being jailed for nine months?

To be honest, I cannot tell you how they coped, because only the one who gets burnt feels the pain. However, inside the jail, I knew that the local police would not have told them about my whereabouts, otherwise my family would have travelled to meet me. Since no one turned up, I understood that the police must not have told them.

When was the first time someone familiar came to meet you?

It was after 57 days in the jail when I got to see my brother and sister. That was the first time that I was able to see and meet someone familiar; it was a surreal experience.

How did you spend your time in jail?

I understood the need to be a guardian of all Kashmiris who were with me, as I saw a lot of worried faces. 'Worried' is an understatement. This feeling came right after we had boarded the flight from Srinagar. And it was inside that air force plane that, despite the loud sounds, we sang the Nazms of Faiz, and that helped people a bit.

Describe your cell/jail?

It was a high-security prison. Nobody was allowed either out of their own cell or inside one another's cells. I was in solitary confinement. Twice every day, for a half hour, we were allowed out. Everything was scrutinised.

Initially, voices from outside and from the distance were very haunting. And then there would be silence again, which was even more haunting. There was this curiosity to see the origin of those voices.

All the walls and bars were white. White used to be my favourite colour, but I was so tired of it that I wanted to see something other than white, and it was three months later that my clothes arrived and I finally saw something that was not white.

Also, you could not even see other prisoners. I spent my time imagining the good times, like my college days in Bengaluru or being with my family. And then you open your eyes and you are in the same jail. That cell again starts haunting you.

Were you able to read or write inside jail?

I started reading only after eight days. I had a book by Noam Chomsky and some books by other authors, but they took them away, as they did not allow printed books there. So I sat on hunger strike for two days, following which I was given books. The jail authorities were actually very good and I was later given access to a lot of literature, including some in Hindi.

However, a pen was something I was never allowed, and whenever the police came to me, I would literally beg them to give me a pen. What made it worse was that those cops always carried pens, but I was never given one. It was after three months that I got to touch a pen for the first time.

Did being a journalist help inside the jail?

Yes, it was helpful, because there was a general notion among inmates — that is created by the national media — of Kashmiris being negative. So much so that even a civilian killing in Kashmir is not condemned by people in India.

As a journalist, I had a bit of an idea of how things are in India and how the national media portrays us. Also I had some knowledge about caste politics and politics in general, so this helped me to connect with them in terms of local issues.

And among them the biggest misconception was about Kashmir, so as a journalist I was, to an extent, able to dispel those myths about us. That was evident by the fact that when we reached there, many people were scared of us and there was a special force to manage us. As they did not know about us, there were many assumptions. But when we left, many policemen escorted me and told me that they would visit Kashmir and love to be hosted by me. I can say that, to an extent, I was able to cure the ill of indoctrination.

What kept you going when inside the jail?

For a long time, I thought I was dreaming but there were people who had more haunting stories than me inside the jail. For example, one man was to be married two days after his arrest, and yet, he was jailed. Another man, in his 60s had married late in his life and had little children to look after. Such stories made me stronger.

Then I realised that I had to put on a brave face, as these guys would always cry. And I thought it was my job to keep them motivated and, in fact, alive. That was my first priority, because we were in social isolation for nine months.

People are maintaining social distancing now, however we have been maintaining it for over nine months now.

Tell us about your health, especially your mental health?

My health was fine till the onset of winter, however after winter came, my leg started to hurt and that's something I have carried with me till now. I had just one pair of trousers, a T-shirt and a Rs 10 note in my pocket. I had worn that shirt for 52 days, and when I came out, I counted that it had 119 holes.

My mental health was very much intact, because I was reading a lot, and when I was tired of reading, I would sing a lot and then others would join from their cells. We would usually sing Faiz and many Kashmiri songs. And the policemen would enjoy it. Music was a panacea for affliction. Also music helped bridge the gap with the authorities, and many times we were told, "Aap bhi hamari tarah ho, aap bhi hamare gaane gaate ho (you are also like us, you also sing our songs)."

I had developed a technique to prevent my mental energy from draining. In such places, you don't want your mental strength to drain. I read a lot of Munshi Prem Chand and that's what I would read for people there. Faiz and Chomsky were not allowed though.

Two of your colleagues have been booked under UAPA; what do you make of that?

It is very drastic and unfortunate that such major journalists have been targeted. If journalists like Gowhar Geelani have been targeted, what will happen to minor ones like us? But there is a pattern in this. It is not happening only in Kashmir, journalists like Gauri Lankesh have been targeted in other parts of India.

The State does not want to provide any space for what they call "bad journalism". It doesn't want to provide space for facts.

So how do you see it affecting other journalists?

It will, of course, affect others. There is a feeling of fear that we might be targeted. There is a line that has been drawn to ensure you can only report certain things. It is very unfortunate though that your journalistic freedom is being taken away and you are being scrutinised. Even your social media space is being scrutinised.

Tell us about your plans for the future. Will you restart The Kashmiriyat?

We will start working afresh soon. The web portal will also resume in a very professional and ethical manner. We will be better than what we were. We will carry on with the journalism on which we have focussed.

via Blogger https://ift.tt/2KMbwg4

[brajeshupadhyay]

On 25 April, Qazi Shibli, a south Kashmir-based journalist and editor, returned home after nine month in a prison in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly. It was also the first day of the holy month of Ramzan, bringing much needed joy to the family and to the 28-year-old himself. Shibli, who runs online news portal The Kashmiriyat, says that he was summoned by a local police station on 27 July last year, after he reported, and later tweeted, a leaked government order on additional troop buildup in the Valley. The questioning continued for four days, explains Shibli on his website, "I was in the police station and my family was assured that I would be released on [4 August]," he says, "However, then the abrogation [of Article 370] happened, communications were snapped and the rest is history." On 8 August, he was booked under the Public Safety Act and later lodged in a jail hundreds of kilometres away from his home, like hundreds of other Kashmiris — he was among the 412 others also booked under the draconian law. His PSA charges were revoked on 13 April in an effort to decongest the jails during the COVID-19 pandemic. His release comes on the heels of news of two Kashmiri journalists — Gowhar Geelani and Masrat Zahra — being booked under the anti-terror law, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The Committee to Protect Journalists that had reported on Shibli's detention and run a campaign for charges against him to be dropped, welcomed his release and called on authorities in Jammu and Kashmir to release award-winning journalist Asif Sultan and put a stop to the misuse of laws to target journalists. Following his release, Shibli spoke to this journalist about his ordeal, the future of journalism in the Valley and more. Edited excerpts of the interview follow: Why were you jailed? Journalistic freedom in India, especially after the BJP came to power in 2014, has been shrinking a great deal. There are many cases like those of Gauri Lankesh and Prasoon Bajpai — whose journalistic freedom was curtailed. In fact, Gauri was killed for her brave journalism. You are not given any space or grey areas. The government wants us to follow a certain path and tells us to do only one type of journalism. How did you react after you learned about the PSA against you? I have done many stories on the PSA and tried to understand what the Act is all about. So, I always had a sense of watching developments from the outside; however, being booked under the PSA gave me a much better idea of the Act from the inside. I felt very strange. I couldn't believe I had been booked under the PSA. Initially, I had tears in my eyes, but then there was a minor with me and he was smiling. That's when I felt embarrassed that this kid was smiling and I was crying, so I thought it was best to face whatever has to come. There was a despair that till the previous day I was writing stories about the PSA, but now, I was being detained under the same Act. But that kid brought me out of the despair. When were you shifted to the Uttar Pradesh jail? On the morning of 9 August last year, we were taken to Srinagar airport and we had no idea about where we were being taken. For the first two months, we weren't even told where we were lodged. [Later we learned] it was Bareilly District Jail. Your imprisonment came at a time when communication was snapped in Kashmir. Our families did not know where we had been taken; they had come with lunch to the police station and were told that we weren't there. It was a time when you wanted to call people and seek help, but that was not happening. And the biggest concern was about how the families would know [of our whereabouts], because is the first thing that comes to your mind during these times. How difficult was it for your family to come to terms with you being jailed for nine months? To be honest, I cannot tell you how they coped, because only the one who gets burnt feels the pain. However, inside the jail, I knew that the local police would not have told them about my whereabouts, otherwise my family would have travelled to meet me. Since no one turned up, I understood that the police must not have told them. When was the first time someone familiar came to meet you? It was after 57 days in the jail when I got to see my brother and sister. That was the first time that I was able to see and meet someone familiar; it was a surreal experience. How did you spend your time in jail? I understood the need to be a guardian of all Kashmiris who were with me, as I saw a lot of worried faces. 'Worried' is an understatement. This feeling came right after we had boarded the flight from Srinagar. And it was inside that air force plane that, despite the loud sounds, we sang the Nazms of Faiz, and that helped people a bit. Describe your cell/jail? It was a high-security prison. Nobody was allowed either out of their own cell or inside one another's cells. I was in solitary confinement. Twice every day, for a half hour, we were allowed out. Everything was scrutinised. Initially, voices from outside and from the distance were very haunting. And then there would be silence again, which was even more haunting. There was this curiosity to see the origin of those voices. All the walls and bars were white. White used to be my favourite colour, but I was so tired of it that I wanted to see something other than white, and it was three months later that my clothes arrived and I finally saw something that was not white. Also, you could not even see other prisoners. I spent my time imagining the good times, like my college days in Bengaluru or being with my family. And then you open your eyes and you are in the same jail. That cell again starts haunting you. Were you able to read or write inside jail? I started reading only after eight days. I had a book by Noam Chomsky and some books by other authors, but they took them away, as they did not allow printed books there. So I sat on hunger strike for two days, following which I was given books. The jail authorities were actually very good and I was later given access to a lot of literature, including some in Hindi. However, a pen was something I was never allowed, and whenever the police came to me, I would literally beg them to give me a pen. What made it worse was that those cops always carried pens, but I was never given one. It was after three months that I got to touch a pen for the first time. Did being a journalist help inside the jail? Yes, it was helpful, because there was a general notion among inmates — that is created by the national media — of Kashmiris being negative. So much so that even a civilian killing in Kashmir is not condemned by people in India. As a journalist, I had a bit of an idea of how things are in India and how the national media portrays us. Also I had some knowledge about caste politics and politics in general, so this helped me to connect with them in terms of local issues. And among them the biggest misconception was about Kashmir, so as a journalist I was, to an extent, able to dispel those myths about us. That was evident by the fact that when we reached there, many people were scared of us and there was a special force to manage us. As they did not know about us, there were many assumptions. But when we left, many policemen escorted me and told me that they would visit Kashmir and love to be hosted by me. I can say that, to an extent, I was able to cure the ill of indoctrination. What kept you going when inside the jail? For a long time, I thought I was dreaming but there were people who had more haunting stories than me inside the jail. For example, one man was to be married two days after his arrest, and yet, he was jailed. Another man, in his 60s had married late in his life and had little children to look after. Such stories made me stronger. Then I realised that I had to put on a brave face, as these guys would always cry. And I thought it was my job to keep them motivated and, in fact, alive. That was my first priority, because we were in social isolation for nine months. People are maintaining social distancing now, however we have been maintaining it for over nine months now. Tell us about your health, especially your mental health? My health was fine till the onset of winter, however after winter came, my leg started to hurt and that's something I have carried with me till now. I had just one pair of trousers, a T-shirt and a Rs 10 note in my pocket. I had worn that shirt for 52 days, and when I came out, I counted that it had 119 holes. My mental health was very much intact, because I was reading a lot, and when I was tired of reading, I would sing a lot and then others would join from their cells. We would usually sing Faiz and many Kashmiri songs. And the policemen would enjoy it. Music was a panacea for affliction. Also music helped bridge the gap with the authorities, and many times we were told, "Aap bhi hamari tarah ho, aap bhi hamare gaane gaate ho (you are also like us, you also sing our songs)." I had developed a technique to prevent my mental energy from draining. In such places, you don't want your mental strength to drain. I read a lot of Munshi Prem Chand and that's what I would read for people there. Faiz and Chomsky were not allowed though. Two of your colleagues have been booked under UAPA; what do you make of that? It is very drastic and unfortunate that such major journalists have been targeted. If journalists like Gowhar Geelani have been targeted, what will happen to minor ones like us? But there is a pattern in this. It is not happening only in Kashmir, journalists like Gauri Lankesh have been targeted in other parts of India. The State does not want to provide any space for what they call "bad journalism". It doesn't want to provide space for facts. So how do you see it affecting other journalists? It will, of course, affect others. There is a feeling of fear that we might be targeted. There is a line that has been drawn to ensure you can only report certain things. It is very unfortunate though that your journalistic freedom is being taken away and you are being scrutinised. Even your social media space is being scrutinised. Tell us about your plans for the future. Will you restart The Kashmiriyat? We will start working afresh soon. The web portal will also resume in a very professional and ethical manner. We will be better than what we were. We will carry on with the journalism on which we have focussed.

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