Updated: December 18, 2020 8:55:25 am
The protest site on the Singhu border in New Delhi on Thursday. (Express photo by Abhinav Saha)
IT WAS a few nights ago that the idea for a newsletter in Hindi and Punjabi was born inside a farmer’s cart on the Singhu border, where thousands have been protesting against farm laws since November 26. Finally, on Thursday night, at least 2,000 copies of the four-page newsletter – aptly named Trolley Times – reached the Singhu and Tikri borders, for circulation on Friday.
“Judaange, Ladaange, Jeetange!” is the headline on the first page of the first issue of the biweekly newsletter, which contains photographs, cartoons, poems, news reports and opinion pieces written by protesting union leaders and farmers. Of the four pages, one is in Hindi.
“I have been here since day one and noticed that the morcha on the borders of Tikri and Singhu stretches for several kilometers. Not everyone shows up every day to listen to the speakers on stage, they ask each other what happened … Through the bulletin, the message from the stage, the development in the conversations with the government, among other similar reports, easily reach farmers, ”he said. screenwriter Surmeet Maavi (46), who founded Trolley Times with Barnala documentary photographer Gurdeep Singh Dhaliwal (27).
While Maavi said the bulletin is also a way to showcase the “intellect of the farmers,” Dhaliwal said the need also arose from the “widespread lack of faith that protesters have on the front page of the Trolley’s mainstream media. Times “. Once the idea floated into farmer Narinder Bhinder’s cart, a team of volunteers was formed and approached union leaders, farm law experts and farmers on both borders to order parts. “We posted a message on social media platforms and the word spread quickly. At first, we were worried about filling four pages, but we were overwhelmed with hundreds of emails … I have at least 300 emails, many of which I haven’t even been able to read yet, ”said Dhaliwal.
Farmers read at the site of the protest on the Singhu border on Thursday. (Express photo by Abhinav Saha)
On page one of Friday, next to the main piece there is another story with a photo of a Sikh man sitting inside a tractor, a more common sight on both borders, with the headline: “Inquilaab di talvaar vichaaran di saan tey tez hondi ae”. This is a quote from Bhagat Singh, Maavi said, and it means “the sword of revolution sharpens the sharpening stone of thought.” The page’s editorial, titled “Ikko naara ladaange, jeetaange,” was written by veteran leader Kisan Sukhdarshan Singh Natt, Maavi said.
The Hindi-language pieces inside are about Rajasthan farmers blocking a national highway and another piece about Delhi and the protests. “The Hindi page is for our Haryana brothers who cannot read Gurumukhi,” he said.
Maavi, who wrote the 1984 film Punjab, starring Diljit Dosanjh, studied mass communication and was a journalist. “We can’t create a complete team like the newspapers, but we did get some volunteers on board. The money came out of our pockets but there were people who were generous enough to help us finance this… We are also the children of farmers, and this is our way of contributing, ”he said.
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