Silence In The Library

[June 2020 Update: I will be turning this story into a short film. Stay tuned!]

Tini bends over with her hands on her knees, exhausted. There’s a cut on her lip that’s slowly filling her mouth with blood. She spits the blood out of her mouth and stands straight to go back to help her friends barricade the door with chairs and tables.

The library doors shudder as policemen try to break through the students’ barricade. Students who aren’t piling up chairs and desks against the door are busying themselves in other ways: some students are painting slogans of protest on a giant flag and others are making panicked phone calls to loved ones. The atmosphere in the library is filled with tension, like a cloud ready to burst into a storm, but in the back of the library, Laksh is completely occupied in his studies.

Tini notices Laksh not helping and approaches him. They’re old friends but have vastly different political stances. Tini is a far-left liberal socialist who believes in the power of revolution as a means for social reform, whereas Laksh is a disillusioned pacifist who wants to stay under the radar and become a quiet teacher.

Outside the library, a few cops are trying to break the door down by running into it, unsuccessfully. They take turns one by one, each policeman eventually walking away dejectedly massaging their shoulders. Mahesh walks away after his turn and finds his fellow policeman Chintan doing push-ups in the corridor. Mahesh asks him if a shoulder injury is covered in the constable health insurance. Chintan ignores the question and gets up, visibly excited to give the door one more attempt. He runs up to the door and gracelessly crashes into it face-first, the door not budging even the slightest.

Inside, Tini and Laksh continue to argue. Tini questions his passivity, calling Laksh out on being afraid to take a side in a war of ideologies that has already begun to have casualties, “The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in times of moral crisis, preserve their neutrality.” Laksh argues that Tini engages in revolutionary activities as some sort of social justice tourist, because she actually comes from a rich and privileged family. He thinks she doesn’t believe in the cause, but she simply has a problem with authority that stems from her toxic relationship with her father. Tini shows Laksh just how serious she is by pulling out a loaded pistol from her bag, that she stole from her father’s collection.

Outside, Chintan pulls out a small packet of orange sindoor powder and goes around applying it on his comrades. When he approaches Mahesh, Mahesh declines the offer. Chintan feels insulted and argues with Mahesh about religion and draws a parallel between their work and righteousness. Their conversation is interrupted by the college chai-walla who chimes in and gives his opinion about serving these entitles liberal students and how things were better in 1992. Mahesh gets a Whatsapp video call from his mother who wants to know how he’s doing. Chintan says hello, and Mahesh’s mother sees the sindoor on his forehead and insists that Mahesh wear some as well. He tries to argue against it, but his mother insists, saying that she doesn’t care about the politics behind it, she just wants her son to be safe.

Inside, the students feel confident that their barricade is sufficient and take a moment to relax. They gather around, sitting on the desks pushed against the door. One of them pulls out a bag of marijuana and starts rolling a joint. Another strolls through the library and picks out a book of revolutionary poems to read aloud. The students finish the flag and tie it to the handle of a large broom, displaying it proudly till someone mentions that they’ve drawn the Nazi swastika the wrong way.

Chintan is applying sindoor on Mahesh when they’re interrupted by another constable who’s brought a local worker with an axe. The worker’s only concern is that the axe is not damaged as it’s his only source of income.

Inside, Tini calls Laksh a selfish narcissist who can’t think beyond himself and will never be a good teacher at this rate. He won’t even help her, a friend he’s known since they were children. Laksh says he doesn’t want anything: whether it’s to care or to fight or to listen. He just wants to be left alone. Tini calls him a coward who’s too afraid to be hurt by reality, and she regrets having loved him for her entire life. Laksh soberly explains, “Reality? The school where I was volunteering was in Shiv Vihar. They burnt it down Tini. It’s gone. How can I fight for an ideal when there’s nowhere to apply it?”

Outside, Chintan walks towards the library doors, carrying the axe in a menacing manner. He trips on a step but quickly regains his composure and approaches the wooden door. Chintan starts striking the door with the heavy axe.

Inside, the sudden axe breaking through the door incites panic amongst the students. They throw away their books and drugs as they scamper away from the door. Tini and Laksh jump from their seats. When there’s a large enough gap to see through, Chintan sticks his face against the door and taunts them. One of the students throws a pen at him which he scoffs at, but then someone throws a shoe at his face.

Chintan turns around and orders Mahesh to bring a tear gas cannister. Mahesh runs to find the equipment vehicle. Chintan turns back and starts exchanging insults with the students. They chant protest slogans at him, “The pen is mightier than the sword!” and Chintan replies with, “Yeah, but in this country the lathi is mightier than the pen, you motherfuckers!”

Tini rifles through her bag frantically and pulls out a folded black cloth. She unfolds it and it turns out to be a burqa which she hurriedly wears. Mahesh asks her why she’s wearing a burqa if she’s a Hindu. Tini tells him, “When my Muslim classmates are being imprisoned and tortured, I am a Muslim. When my Muslim neighbors have their homes burnt down, I am a Muslim. When this country finally kills every Muslim in India, I’ll be among the dead.” Tini pulls out her gun but Laksh pleads with her not to kill a policeman who may just be doing their job, but more importantly because he doesn’t want her to get hurt. She accepts.

Mahesh returns with the tear cannister and Chintan orders him to toss it inside the library through the gap. Mahesh fumbles with the cannister before throwing it, missing the hole the first time but finally manages to get it through the hole.

The students’ first instinct is to throw it back out but Chintan immediately covers the gap with a riot shield, sticking his tongue out and mocking them through the tough plastic shield. Tini puts on some bright red lipstick, then pulls out a stone from her bag and draws a red swastika on it. As the smoke starts spreading, the students start coughing and choking. With no way out, someone yells that they have to remove the barricade and open the doors. The students frantically shove and kick the chairs and tables away from the door.

On the other side, the riot police officers prepare to engage the protestors, some of them put on gas masks. Mahesh forgot his mask at home, and Chintan says he doesn’t like to wear a mask because he wants the students to see his face and hear his insults when he beats them up. Mahesh asks Chintan why he’s so hell bent on assaulting these youngsters, Chintan tells him that he doesn’t really care about the politics or his duty or the righteousness, but this is what makes him feel alive.

Tini watches her fellow students breaking down the barricade. Through the smoke, the last table is almost being moved away and she turns and kisses Laksh, leaving a trace of her lipstick and blood on his lips when she pulls away. Laksh watches, stunned, as she steps into the smoke with the stone in her hand.

The doors burst open and the policemen rush into the library to lathi charge the protestors. Mayhem breaks loose. One of the students swings the protest flag like a spear and tries to protect himself but is overwhelmed by two policemen. Other students grab books from the shelves and throw it or use them as shields. Tini hurls the stone and it hits Mahesh on the side of his head, making his ears ring and throws him off his balance. He looks around at the chaos and sees Chintan throw his lathi away to pick up the shoe that hit his face and thrash a student with it. Tini picks up Chintan’s dropped lathi and attacks him with it. Chintan falls to the ground and can’t protect himself, so Mahesh comes to his aid and kicks Tini in her stomach. She collapses on the ground but still fights back, so Mahesh continues assaulting her.

Laksh watches Mahesh attacking Tini and in a state of panic he pulls out the gun from Tini’s bag. He points the gun at Mahesh but his hands are shaking with fear. Laksh looks around. He sees the pain of his fellow students, the senseless violence, the rage in the eyes of the policemen. He looks down and sees the gun in his hands. Slowly, the gun turns around, towards himself, like his hands were being controlled by someone else.

A loud BANG stops Mahesh in his tracks. People scream and rush out, even the policemen run for their lives. Laksh slides to the floor, leaving a trail of blood on the wall behind him. Tini runs to Laksh and places her hand on his chest to stop the bleeding, but he’s already dead. She screams for help and turns around, but only finds Mahesh standing there. Everybody left, the students, the policemen. Mahesh looks down at Laksh. The orange sindoor on Mahesh’s forehead mixed with blood and sweat trickles down his face.

END.

As we see this wide final shot, the title of the film, ‘Silence In The Library’ appears on screen. Suddenly five men dressed in BJP uniform interrupts the shoot and starts pushing people around, demanding to talk to the producer. The producer meekly approaches them and they slap him around, ordering the film production to be shut down. They start pushing down light-stands and breaking equipment till they notice the camera that’s shooting this. They approach the camera with a lathi while chanting, “Bharat mata ki jai!” and smash the lens to bits.

CUT TO BLACK. THE REAL END.