Days Of Darkness

Three former political prisoners recount their years in prison

- Anjuly Mathai

THERE IS AN easy camaraderie between Bellala Padma, 43, Bellapu Anuradha, 54, and Potluri Kranti, 37, as they sit on the diwan of a small house in Telangana. It is difficult to imagine that they were political prisoners who had been arrested on charges of Naxalism and imprisoned for many years in various prisons of India—Kranti in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh from 2011 to 2016, Padma in Chhattisgarh from 2008 to 2018, and Anuradha in Jharkhand from 2009 to 2013. They seem jovial and rib each other about how old they look and how much weight they have put on after getting released.

“The first thing that happens when we get out of jail is that we put on a lot of weight, as we try to compensate for all that we didn’t get in jail,” says Anuradha. Within a year of getting out, she put on 18 kilos, and within 20 days, Padma put on eight kilos.

I speak mostly with Anuradha, as the others do not speak English. They do, however, say that they have picked up other languages in prison. Kranti learnt Oriya, Anuradha and Padma, Hindi. “I used to set myself a daily target of learning 25 to 30 words in Hindi,” says Padma. “You are not allowed to write letters in your mother tongue, so you are forced to learn another language.” Anuradha jokes that if she is ever imprisoned again, she hopes it will be in a different jail, so that she can pick up another language.