LEFT & WRITE

Social activist Kobad Ghandy, jailed for a decade for his alleged Maoist leanings and activities, is finally adjusting to life outside prison. He has turned to writing, and his first book, Fractured Freedom: A Prison Memoir, chronicles his incredible journey

- MANDIRA NAYAR

Past the Parsi hostel for women in Worli, through a narrow opening almost down a rabbit hole, lies the once-slum colony of Jayanagar. The birthplace of the Dalit Panthers in the 1970s has now been gentrified; there are apartments with lifts. A bright yellow crane at the entrance, however, indicates that work is still in progress.

After spending a decade in several prisons, Kobad Ghandy—painted as the poster boy of the ultra-left movement in India—has returned to where it all began for him. Free now, he plods carefully with his walker. “Arthritis and sciatica are both jail products,” he says.

Old-timers who recognize him stop to take pictures with an unmasked Ghandy. “I take things to build my immunity, then I do not worry that much,” he says.