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Hi guys and girls! Arka, first-time writer, here. Requesting patience and consideration.

When I began this story, it was a very small idea. Eventually as it progressed, the idea blossomed and began to grow. While I trust my characters will acquaint you, the reader, with their world, I must share my the little knowledge about the world you are about to step into. You know, so we are literally on the same page.

This story is about a group of people meeting amidst 1971 Bengal, an era where Naxalism in West Bengal and the Bangladesh liberation war across the border went hand in hand.

It all started back in 1917 when Karl Marx first coined the term 'communism'. In India, this gave birth to a new political party, Communist party of India (CPI). Soon USA was all over it, America became a superpower through capitalism, they wouldn't stand for a world where people governed themselves as a community. But this political context changed in India when in 1966 for the first time the CPI won the elections in Bengal.

Then entered Mao Tse-tung of China, who twisted the idea of communism, that 'political power grows out of the barrel of the gun'. He started something he called 'a revolutionary struggle of the vast majority of people against the exploiting classes and their state structures', his ideas didn't stay inside the Chinese borders, it travelled wide, to India and beyond. it was a time when the Indian government unsuccessful at reforming the zamindari system, feudalism that survived over thousand years. In a secluded village at the Himalayan foothills of Bengal, a peasant leader Kanu Sanyal, fed up with feudalism took matters into his own hands, he started a movement to adopt armed struggle to distribute land to the landless. His fellow leaders theorised this was the next great revolution after the Chinese revolution and the Vietnam War. The following weeks into the movement, a farmer in the Naxalbari village was attacked by the landlord's men over a land dispute. And soon police were involved. This event enraged many tribals and other people to join the movement and to start attacking the local landlords. Thus began 'Naxalism' a new age of various debates, many political concerns, numerous movie plots and is still inspiring Instagram hashtags. It actually took a long time for people to realise that this was the work of extremists groups and not the left government of CPI itself. Nonetheless, the highly vocal middle classes resulted in CPI being divided and the one that came to power in Bengal was called the CPI(M), who claimed to practice a more benevolent form of communism.

This was also the time India took an active interest in the Bangladesh Liberation war, who were demanding independence from Pakistan constituency. To shun the national language Urdu and to be free to speak their mother tongue, Bengali. The world for the first time witnessed freedom fighters ready to die for their language. Most of the war efforts were being pushed through West Bengal, curfew was imposed on many areas.

However, Indian youth could not give up on the ideas of communism. The idea of a better state, where people did not need to owe banks, where states were run by people so responsible, that they could innovate even in absence of competition. A dozen colleges were always in the boil as groups of aggressive students came down on the ground to preach the ideals of the long delayed Indian revolution. They criticised American imperialism, often menacingly, this world was too beautiful. Friendships were forged over public protests, they referred each other as their 'comrade' in arms. Students died protesting, with a few mass shootouts being reported, such as in Baranagar area of Kolkata.

Being real made it brutal, but no struggle in short of a saga. A grand story from the ideas of Karl Marx down to the violence of Mao Tse-tung. The year of 1971 was marked with major victories in war, cricket, politics, all of which bore long term consequences for India and thus West Bengal. So here came those people, who can't wait to see where the road leads. The law abiding citizens, all about following rules, further divided in the opinion if to raise voices against government or humbly pay taxes. To make banners, or paint graffiti and forget about it, or to remember it forever and keeping writing about it, in poems, in songs or novels. They say Kolkata had it's last snowfall in 1971.

But a story told a thousand times never remains the same. It climbs higher, goes further, digs deeper, so we will venture into fantasy in the course of this novel. Hence, I must mention that my work is purely fiction and if it inadvertently hurts anyone, I am very sorry. This is not my intention. Supernatural stuff, beyond explanations of science and about histories whispered. All these elements are in no way an attempt to warp the original history of the period through my storytelling.

So, here is my novel, hope people of all kinds and minds like it, find their own meaning in it. Do forgive my grammar. I will try and update at regular intervals. Please comment and vote, they will be the framework of my novel. Love you all now and future readers.

Happy reading everyone!

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