Red Salute to Com. Shalini!

On the night of 29 March, our beloved comrade, a brave young revolutionary and an important organiser of laying the foundation of several revolutionary endeavours, Shalini left us forever. It was in the second week of January that she was diagnosed with cancer and since then she was battling with this fatal metastatic cancer with exemplary courage and bravery. Immediately after getting diagnosed with cancer, she was taken to Delhi's Dharmshila Cancer Hospital where doctors told in the beginning itself that the cancer was at very advance stage and its complete cure was not possible. They could only provide treatment for relief from pain and extending the life. However, with the consent of the doctors of Dharmshila Cancer Hospital, she was also given treatment with two methods of alternative therapy. The doctors of theses therapies were very much confident that Shalini could get well. Com. Shalini was aware of all this since the beginning and she was battling with the disease with amazing courage, positive attitude and lust for life.

She was administered with the first Chemotherapy in January and two more rounds in February and March. Since the medicine in the first chemo did not work, the doctors had changed the medicine since the second chemo. She was supposed to be given the third round of chemotherapy since since 29th March. But meanwhile her condition was continuously deteriorating. She had become very weak due side effects of chemotherapy and due to repeated bouts of vomiting it was very difficult for her to eat anything. Due to tumour, the stomach was repeatedly getting filled with liquid and she was to be taken to the hospital even for its removal. Due to body infection she had to remain admitted to hospital from 2 March to 10 March and then from 14 to 19 March. In the meantime she was also administered with the third round of chemotherapy. Even after returning from hospital she had to be given injection for many times a day for avoiding infection. On March 27, due to blood pressure getting dipped very low she had to be admitted to the hospital again.

On the morning of 28 March, doctors took her to ICU so that dopamine could be administered for making the blood pressure normal. On the morning of 29 March we had a word with Dr. Anish Maru, who was supervising Shalini's treatment, that since chemotherapy was not yielding the desired results and since as per him there was no chance of complete cure, could we take her to the Nature Life International situated in Calicut as they claim that in some cases patient were successfully cured there. Dr. Maru did not raise any objection and said that as soon as Shalini was in position of travelling, she could be taken there.

We had also spoken to Dr. Jacob, chief of Nature Life and we had made all arrangements for Shalini's travel as well. The entire team which looked after her was supposed to travel along with her. Even Shalini wanted the same. Meanwhile at 9 pm on  March 29, due to sudden internal bleeding and obstruction in the windpipe she had a cardiac arrest for 3-4 minutes after which the doctors restored the pulse through CPR and she was kept on ventilator. The doctors at the ICU said that after this incident her condition had deteriorated and that they could not do anything till next morning. The comrades present there immediately informed to all the comrades and Shalini's mother. Subsequently another cardiac arrest took place at around 11:14 pm and this time all the efforts of doctors to resuscitate her were proved unsuccessful. She breathed her last at 11:25 pm.

Comrade Shalini wrote in her political will (Last wish),

"if I lose out in the battle of life
My body must be wrapped in our cherished red flag
And then it must be donated to a government hospital or medical institute
For the purpose of scientific research or to donate organs to poor and needy patients.
I will legally assign the responsibility for this to two of my comrades.
If this is not possible for any reason
My body should be taken to an electric crematorium
On the shoulders of my comrades
And my last rites must be performed without any religious rituals
With raised fists and the International being played. "

We wanted to complete the legal formalities for her wish for donating her body as soon as possible, but our first priority was her health. She was in this hospital for almost the entire month of March and even at home she was in no position to take strain. It was for this reason she could not get the opportunity to donate complete the legal formalities for body donation. Secondly, no one including the doctors had idea that death will take her away so soon. Respecting the communist values and the last wish of comrade Shalini, her comrades gave salute with tight fist and with international song to her dead body which was wrapped with the red flag. On March 30, 2013 She was cremated in electric crematorium at Delhi's Lodhi Road without any religious ritual with the slogans like 'Red salute to Com. Shalini' and 'Com. Shalini you are alive in our collective resolve'.

Com. Shalini's life, her single minded devotion towards revolutionary work, her commitment towards her role in the battle for people's emancipation without caring a little for her personal joy and grief, dreams and aspirations remains an inspiration for all of us in today's time. The memory of Comrade Shalini will continue to inspire us to move ahead on this path with firm steps. It is our promise to Com. Shalini that in order to accomplish the works for which she devoted 18 years of life, we will work with double enthusiasm. She had an immense love for revolution and communist principles and she hated those tremendously who threw mud on them. Her life is also a living testimony that no compromise should be done with the enemies of revolution.   

A revolutionary Life:

Com. Shalini's political life began in her teens, when in 1995 she went from Lucknow to Gorakhpur to participate in a month-long cultural workshop and a three-day Shaheed Mela (programme organised in memory of the martyrs) . After this, she started living in a commune with young woman comrades in Gorakhpur. Shalini worked on the women's front, cultural front and the student's front while she was in the commune for three years. Meanwhile she completed her Masters course in ancient history from the University of Gorakhpur. She had already decided in 1995 to work as a fulltime revolutionary worker.
During 1998-99, Shalini moved to Lucknow and started participating in the publication of Marxist literature from Rahul Foundation and other activities. From 1999 to 2001 she looked after the Janchetna bookshop in Gorakhpur, regularly organising street exhibitions, door-to-door campaigns and various other things to promote pro-people literature. She worked as the incharge of the Janchetna centre in Allahabad from November 2002 to December 2003. Since 2004, she had been looking after the responsibilities of the central office and book shop of Janchetna in Lucknow. Apart from this, she had also been assisting in the publication activities of Parikalpana, Rahul Foundation and Anurag Trust. Along with looking after the activities at the main offices of Anurag Trust (library, reading room, children's workshops etc.), Com. Shalini took care of the veteran activist and main trustee of Anurag Trust, late Com. Kamla Pandey with the affection and dedication befitting a true communist. When in 2011, it was decided to build the central library of the Arvind Memorial Trust in Lucknow, it was again Shalini who owned the main responsibility.
She was  the president of the society who runs Janchetna Books, member of the board of trustees of Anurag Trust, executive member of Rahul Foundation and a director of Parikalpana publications. It is noteworthy that besides shouldering all these departmental responsibilities, Shalini had also been an active participant of general political propaganda activities and agitational actions as much as possible.
Com. Shalini was a hard-working, young communist organiser with a rich experience of eighteen years of difficult and turbulent political life full of ups and downs. She was unwavering in her belief in communism and had always been tenacious and hard-working like a labourer in her political work. Meanwhile, many showed their backs in the battlefield. Many have compromised, left the ranks to wallow in the mire of decadence, settling in cozy nests, even preaching pragmatism to others or becoming peddlers of opportunist politics. None of these could ever affect Shalini, who remained resolute on her path. She never looked back or compromised once she decided her goal in life. Even when her father degenerated due to his vested interests and class arrogance and started a campaign of slandering and character-assassination, Shalini completely broke her relations with him without a second's delay. The firmness with which Shalini made a decisive rupture with all property relations despite coming from a usurer, trader and landlord family and the earnestness with which she adopted communist values, is both rare and exemplary in today's time.