Riot burnt lyrics (Bangladesh, 19th Dec. 2025)

This is one of the most emotional depictions of riot/public unrest I've come upon. Taken in Bangladesh, 19th December 2025, after a masked mob burnt down Chhayanot musical academy. Chhayanaut building set on fire.

A burnt text, probably Rabindranath

What does a riot burn? It burns portions of our identity. Sometimes for the better, sometimes worse. In reality, we have no true understanding, let alone control, of our future. As we speak -- rather, as our ideologies speak through us -- we try to ascertain its course. (On the brighter side, this is an interactive process for ALL of us -- belief and observation interplay.)

More often than not, we burn that which has made us heavier all this while. This object could be insignia, which, however regal, we no longer know how to carry; the elegance of them a stark contrast to the filth of the suffering that has become our existence. So we want to eliminate the torture of their mere vision from our eyes.

I'll skip the obvious trope of burning not just a piece of paper but an entire art form, and all those related stories. In any case, art is like moss -- regenerative. There is only so much harm we can try doing to art. Art will erupt from charred manuscripts and shattered instruments -- it is not up for us to stop it.

Sometimes we burn one thing and it takes down others. The image probably depicts that. Or maybe it doesn't. Different people want to burn different things. A riot is a collective act. It is surprising that throughout history men have gathered with an intent to burn without the possibility (or realizing it?) of conflicting intents. What if one of the rioters has a sister who tries novice Hindustani classical music in her spare time? I suppose a life-necessity (an art form, a building, a picture, even an entire person!) is not a necessity after all if it hasn't permeated so deep into our instincts that we refuse to arsonize it. In other words, if there is still some consensus about destroying a sustenance, then it hasn't become staple yet. Thereby either it is not indispensable enough, or somewhere we are lacking the devotion to bring it under universal necessity.