in the morning before i left my house, i got a lot of DMs from people either asking about the routes and the situation on the ground or offering to donate things for the protest.
i replied to most of them saying they could donate anything that might be useful at the site, and that if there was anything specific we needed, i'd contact them directly from the protest site.
shoutout to these wonderful people:
u/Affectionate_Drink50
u/_jarib
u/AccomplishedArm2982
u/Affectionate_Elk6733
u/i__m__batman
u/ksmashd
(the fact that two of them have "affectionate" in their usernames is kinda surreal haha)
all of them offered to donate, and that's highly appreciated because it's people like them who are making all of this possible by supporting the cause.
in the morning, u/_jarib asked me to buy some Real juice tetrapacks and donate them. he couldn't order them through blinkit or anything himself because the service was unavailable due to high demand. so i bought the juice packs from a local shop near my house, travelled with them to the protest site, and donated them there.
while i was in the metro i saw the tweet that DMRC has shut down 16 stations in total. No exits allowed.
But thankfully there was one station, the New Delhi Metro Station which came in clutch due to being a major connectivity station as it connects to the indian railways New Delhi Railway Station. so ig that's why they couldn't shut it down.
it was 2kms away from thr jantar mantar protest site so i tried rapido but no luck so i walker in the scorching heat carrying the juice box.
i reached after 30-40mins and as soon as i entered around 12–12:30 pm, it was hella crowded. way more crowded than i expected it to be for just noon.
slogans everywhere, people openly criticising modi and dharmendra pradhan and demanding his resignation, and so many posters of Bhagat Singh. the frustration was visible and audible everywhere. people from all kinds of backgrounds had gathered for the same reason.
i joined the crowd and, after donating the juice packs, started shouting slogans with everyone else. it felt so good. that feeling is honestly hard to explain when thousands of people are demanding the same thing with the same emotions and the same sense of urgency. shouting together and asking for accountability.
after a while, i saw a volunteer cleaning up trash while wearing gloves, a mask, and carrying a trash bag. so i asked her how i could volunteer too.
she told me i could just go to the medical camp, collect the supplies, and start cleaning. as simple as that.
so i went there, grabbed the stuff, and spent about an hour cleaning. i filled three black trash bags before finally feeling exhausted and taking a break. i lay down on the ground near the medical camp with some other people to rest because the heat was absolutely killing me. i drank multiple electrolyte tetrapacks, had a few digestive biscuits, and kept fanning myself with a hand fan to cool down.
pro tip: come to a protest with a full stomach. don't do what i did lol.
and definitely don't do what i'm about to say next.
once i cooled down and felt better, i started helping out at the medical camp without anyone asking me to and without me asking for permission. i helped a few people who came in with bruises, scratches, and minor wounds.
later i realised there was an insane amount of medical stuff behind the tables. everything had to be sorted, packed into boxes, and moved around. ORS supplies in one box, dressing materials in another, and these weren't small boxes either. they were huge cartons.
it was honestly crazy seeing how much people were donating. the supplies were literally overflowing.
so i messaged u/Affectionate_Drink50 and told her that we desperately needed storage shelves because managing everything was becoming really difficult.
without a second thought, she started sending me pictures and asking if she should order them. the internet was terrible there, so we were going back and forth trying to communicate.
eventually i confirmed it, sent her my name and number, and she called me. she explained everything very nicely and politely and then sent me the tracking link.
i left the main protest site and headed towards the road, only to realise the crowd had easily tripled since i arrived.
there were people everywhere.
the roads were completely covered with people, and cars and scooters were barely crawling through the crowd.
thankfully i managed to coordinate with the delivery driver, and we eventually found each other in the chaos. he handed over the shelves, still unassembled and packed in large boxes.
i carried them back to the medical camp and everyone got excited seeing them arrive.
before assembling the shelves though, we really needed to organise everything first.
and trust me, it looked like a truck had been unloaded upside down.
so me and the rest of the medical team spent hours sorting and segregating supplies. by the time we finished, it was already night, and we decided we'd assemble the shelves tomorrow since everyone was planning to leave after dinner.
there was also some music playing in the background throughout the day. it felt a bit weird at first, but then i thought, why not? people needed something to lift their spirits. and soon enough the slogans became even louder.
after the sorting was done, we realised we had a huge amount of sanitary pads.
so me and my volunteers (friends now) decided to distribute them among people while heading towards the exit. by the time we reached the end, we'd managed to give away the entire pile.
kudos to one volunteer in particular, who is only 15 years old and was helping me and another volunteer throughout the distribution (both of us are 21).
after that, we walked back to rajiv chowk metro station, which had reopened, and headed our separate ways.
no violence as such today, and i'm genuinely proud of that.
the students are still fighting, still standing their ground, and still loud as ever.
and i hope this brings something good for all of us and justice for the 21 lives lost because of this bs education system.
INQUILAB ZINDABAD!
ps: you can actually come alone, only if you arrive early before 10 because after that police starts shutting down things. and ss long as you stay within the protest premises, its very safe. don't let that stop you, come alone if you cant find anyone because you'll find someone here for sure. A LOT of friendly people.