Mayank Prakash The story of modern India is one for the history books. The world’s largest democracy has had an impressive rise from being a colonial-ruled third-world country to one of the influencers on a global arena. Much change has been brought about by the shift in ideologies, from socialism to communism to today’s prevalent…
Illustration by Pariplab Chakraborty/The Wire. India.
Six A4 size notebooks bear witness to the 17 months Kiran Gawli spent in Nagpur Central prison. Each day, Kiran would unfailingly steal a few moments to note down the day’s events – of newly forged friendships, anguish, loneliness and sometimes heartbreak. Some days the words would flow like a poetry; on other days, just a few raw, angry lines. The diary – titled
Kiran-e-dastan (loosely translates to the memoirs of Kiran) – has words etched on each line and page.
Some pages of the deftly written book, however, are missing – as though someone has angrily ripped them out. The prison