A Burning

by Megha Majumdar

Her husband threw acid on her but, somehow, she is the one in jail. These things happen when you are a woman.

But we had no real weapons. We had our bodies and our voices,

Where public feeling goes, the court follows. Freedom will result not from boxes of papers and fights over legality but from a national outcry.

“Society is telling me that I cannot be dreaming this dream,” I am telling her. “Society is having no room for people like me”—and inside I am thinking, forgive me, Jivan, I must be leaving you out of this—“because we are poor, and we may not be speaking perfect English. But is that meaning we are not having dreams?”

“In politics, you will see, sometimes it feels that you are in charge of everything and everyone. But we can only guide them, inspire them. At the end of the day, are they our puppets?

He continues, “With all respect, we have to take care of the people before taking care of the ideology. Through people is how we will spread ideology, not by neglecting them.”