A group of men, chanting pro-Hindu slogans, beat a Muslim man during protests sparked by a citizenship law in New Delhi, India | Reuters/Danish Siddiqui
I try to remember my first meeting with Danish at the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre of Jamia Millia Islamia, as freshly enrolled film school students in the summer of 2005.
All I have is a hazy memory of a tall fellow in a pistachio coloured, half-sleeved shirt tucked inside his jeans and a maroon backpack on his left shoulder. And oh, that he smoked and would later go on to proudly count his many sutta-converts (converts to cigarette smoking), who would join him on the terrace canteen of MCRC between training and theory classes.