AKHIL KATYAL, 31
Poet, Author and Professor, Shiv Nadar University
At Delhi University in the early 2000s, a door opened every day. My DU stint as a literature student was inspiring and revelatory for, what was unthinkable so far was thought and the un-writable was written. In a way, we were perhaps more liberal then.
Our freedom has become endangered. We have reached a level where some of us are happy aspiring only to a stunted version of it. We're not even fighting for a large-hearted and sweeping definition of what 'freedom' could be, instead some of us, me included perhaps, seem happy with a bonsai freedom in our own backyard.
Real freedom is. To script one's own life in accordance to one's largest and most ambitious vision. Right now we're fighting the more basic, fundamental freedoms from fear, violence and censorship. Real freedom is indefinitely postponed.
If I had the complete freedom to change something, then it would be a plebiscite in Kashmir. It's not a popular opinion but we as a nation owe them that, politically and morally.