Write a report for a newspaper about an occasion when riots broke out in your city because of the news of an assassination.
You may use the following details and add any you like of your own: You were in a cinema hall — sudden news flash on the screen — end of the show — effects on the audience — scenes outside the cinema hall — people crying, shouting or standing stunned — running — panic — the condition of transport — little group forming — people listening to media — shops closing — quarrels breaking outspread of fire — curfew —flag-march — police patrols — gradual calm.
Kolkata, 27th July: The picture was nearing its end when the hall hummed with an unusual murmur. People around were talking about some disturbance in the town. Some were fidgeting (= moving uneasily) on their seat, when a slide alerted the news of the assassination of a local influential leader.
Naturally, the end of the show or how the story ended was of little concern for the men inside. Already they began filing out. Outside the hall, the panic fever had already caught momentum. The ladies, especially panicky women, shouted the names of their men. In the push and go some children were estranged (=separated) from their parents and guardians. Their helpless cries rent the air. The air was filled with honking horns and a medley (= mixture) of other sounds.
The scene outside the hall represented a perfect state of panic. Some old persons to whom cine going is a pastime could make little sense of the situation. Usually, they are men of the neighborhood and often spend their evenings in the cinema halls; — the quality of the picture is of little significance to them. It appeared that they were not used to such situations, for they stood on the scene stunned and rooted to the ground.”
Outside the streets were in the grip of another kind of panic. The passengers waiting for public vehicles, autos, and rickshaws were spawning (= producing) various kinds of rumors that cut across one another: the riot broke out from a dispute between two boys of two rival political parties; it was the outcome of a deadly assault on an important work of a powerful political party; the mortally wounded person is declared out of danger; his condition was precarious (= in a critical state); he is dead. It reminds me of the ‘rumor’ in a play by Ben Jonson. Rumor is represented there as a motley (= many-colored) creature, that is unable to define its own self. The discussions on the bus rendered a vivid picture of this phenomenon. Their strange mixture of facts and fiction, truths and lies, part knowledge and part invention was indeed entertaining. But the reality of the situation took much of away its mirth and interest.
The buses were becoming unusually overcrowded. The panic caused by the announcements made the shopkeepers down their shutters, for fear of loot and a rampage. Naturally, customers and all were running for life, it seemed. The gradually deserted streets induced fresh doses of panic. At places, knots of boys and men in shady corners were noticed. A bus was put on fire; police patrolling was launched and at times officers in jeeps with overhead revolving red lights sped past. Within almost an hour curfew from dusk to dawn was imposed.
The assaulted boy that was hospitalized succumbed to his injuries. It unleashed the usual horror: burning of vehicles, attack on government installations, and reprisals (= counter attacks or retaliations). At about 8 PM. a ‘flag march’ of the CRP and the BSF paraded through the streets. In short, the city wore a dismal and panic-stricken appearance.
However, the fact that it was no communal war, reduced the hazards of the event by a reasonable margin. The party bosses and the police commissioner sat in session and sorted out their differences. But even so, the curfew continued.
