This is a #thread about the intolerance of the ‘left lib’ types, some of whom studied with me, and I once considered them friends. They have all disowned me now, to the last person, and spend time gossiping about me on SM. #TrueStory

One guy, who is a legit ‘cholbe na’ types, once asked me angrily when I had translated a poem by Pablo Neruda that I liked very much in Marathi, ‘How DARE you read Neruda, don’t you know he was a communist?’, he squeaked angrily, like Neruda was his ancestral property.

Another woman, my classmate from Mass Comm, sent me a friend request after 15 years, and when I accepted, told me she was ‘unfriending me because my views are too extremist’ for her delicate heart. I merely laughed.

Another guy, from another dept, who once claimed he had a crush on me, whined with existential angst, ‘you are so intelligent, so well-read, so well-traveled, so articulate, how can YOU be such a ‘communal sanghi’? I told him that’s a question HE should ask himself.

Another person, a prof this time, told me with fake concern a few years ago when I had just started writing, ‘you are talented, but if you continue to write like this, you won’t find any publishers for your books’.

All these are people I knew personally n considered my well-wishers, if not friends. Their patronising attitude was something else, when they were trying to ‘convince me’ not to defect to the ‘dark side’. When they realised my convictions, they stopped talking! Good riddance :)