My Date with History

'It was a grisly sight. The zeal and fervour with which the karsevaks were taking part in the demolition job sent a chill down our spines. Those who had no tools to use were scratching away like madmen with their fingernails on the domes. A few young men tied a noose around the domes and were trying to pull them down.' When the CPI(M)-led Left Front was swept to power in 1977, Suman was twenty years old. His upbringing in an educated middle-class family, his brief brush with politics during his student days at the Presidency College and his friendship with people, many of whom would later play important roles in politics, enabled Suman to critically watch the world around him change irrevocably. By the time the Left Front firmly dug its political heels in Bengal through its second thumping victory in the 1983 Assembly polls, Suman had taken his first step into journalism. As a journalist, Suman's USP has always been his insistence to be at the spot where news breaks, notwithstanding his official position.