Those school-less days
The best news for any eight-year-old boy could be to be told that he does not have to go to school. Such news would undoubtedly be even more exciting if that boy's English teacher was very strict, and never hesitated to use the stick. Indeed, the excitement at the possibility of never having to set foot in a school again is difficult to comprehend, yet that was exactly what happened to me one morning in 1979. No matter how hard I try, I cannot remember whether it was summer or winter, but I do vividly remember hearing the news on the radio. The All Assam Students Union (AASU), which at the time was spearheading the anti-'foreigners' Assam movement, had declared the indefinite closure of schools and colleges, and 'asked' all students to boycott classes, effective immediately.
The six-year-long agitation, from 1979 to 1985, was sparked during the parliamentary by-election in the Lok Sabha constituency of Mangaldoi in 1978, following the death of the local MP at the time, Hiralal Patwari. According to the rumours making the rounds, the electorate had grown massively in recent years, and the AASU was demanding that the elections be postponed until the names of alleged foreign nationals were deleted from the electoral rolls. Thus, the Assam Agitation was born – and school was out.