Bengal author writes short story to raise Rs 90k to fund deceased activist's children's education

Democratic Youth Federation of India activist Maidul Islam Midda who succumbed to his injuries suffered during a protest on February 11, is survived by his widow, his mother, two daughters and a niece. Abhik Dutta, a Bengali author has come forward to raise Rs 1 lakh for the three children's education. But he is not just asking for donations. He has written a short story — Maiduler jonno (For Maidul) — which he is selling for Rs 10 per PDF copy.

While DYFI has promised to take care of their education, Abhik plans to raise Rs 1 lakh for the same purpose within a week. And he has successfully raised Rs 78 thousand in the first 24 hours. "The reception has been extremely well. People from every strata have contributed. And that includes people who do not subscribe to left-wing ideologies as well. We have raised a total of Rs 90,000 since the book was released on February 16," said Abhik, a chemical engineer and young author who has raised more than Rs 16 lakhs by selling his books for people affected by Cyclone Amphan and the COVID-19 pandemic as well. Abhik, the author of 30 books, clearly pointed out that he is not affiliated with any organisation left or right and his sole incentive was to do something for the children's future.

The 16 page PDF booklet comes with a cover designed by Taousif Haque and tells the story of a middle-class youth who is slowly losing all he has to unemployment — he has lost the love of his life, a job that he deserves will cost him a bribe of Rs 2 lakh and nothing is life is working out. The story goes further to take the protagonist to the incident on February 11 that took Maidul's life. "I was facing a writer's block when this happened. The scenes we saw from the protests — the youth marching for jobs and the police hitting them mercilessly pushed me to write this," said Abhik, an invested author since 2015 and a resident of Ashoknagar near Kolkata.