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My first memory of Tarun is from the first day of college. It was July 1989, when I sat in the canteen and looked up to a kurta-wearing comrade who walked up to me to ask me rather provocatively about my left credentials. I was both amused and intrigued by his question. This conversation started my association and life-long friendship with Tarun Bhartiya in Kirorimal College (KMC), Delhi University. The last two months since his sudden passing on January 25, 2025, has revealed that everyone has their favorite Tarun stories and that special connection that only they shared with him, that was his gift to all of us.

As innumerable obituaries emerge on Tarun’s life and especially from his time in Shillong, where he built a beautiful and inspiring life (that I will regret never having witnessed beyond hearing excitedly about it from him), with the incredible Angela Rangad and their three kids that he absolutely lived for, I want to share a little about Tarun that many of us knew in our college days. 

That decade 1989-1999 was unforgettable politically. The anti-Mandal agitations against OBC reservations were taking place, Babri Masjid was demolished, and liberalisation of the Indian economy was unfolding rapidly. Delhi University was a visible hub of vibrant left and feminist student movements that Tarun was a significant part of and that phase shaped us all forever.

KMC had a tradition of left politics during that time – in fact, CPI’s student wing AISF had been active in KMC and remnants of that remained, though our own little group of friends defined ourselves as independent/rainbow left. Tarun and I were both a part of Players – the legendary theatre society of KMC, with Keval........

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