At the recently conducted Spoken Fest 2020, former TV news anchor and journalist Faye D’Souza performed a piece Uncle, Are You With Us? that beautifully summed up the way different sections of society have responded to the on-going protests in the nation.
She began her piece by talking about the time she stopped being a ‘mainstream journalist’, and the reason(s) behind it.
She then talks about how uncles in her society and neighborhood support her ‘in spirit’ but would not forward the videos she makes on India’s state of affairs. And this allowed her to address how a ‘silence’ has gripped parts of the nation, even as students have put their future on hold and come on streets to protest.
She talks about what’s actually happening on the streets of India these days, and her matter-of-fact manner makes her point even more effective.
She beautifully explains what an all-pervasive silence means not just for current times, but also, for the future generations to come.
And she ends the piece with a pointed reminder of how the ‘youth’ will be the answer when history asks for accountability.
You can see the complete piece here:
Design credits: Nupur Agrawal
