Ankit Saxena’s Awaara Boys: Don’t Spread Hate In Our Friend’s Name

“Ankit is an icon of love, don’t divide us in his name,” say his closest friends, and YouTube collaborators.

“Spread love, not hate in Ankit’s name,” say the slain 23-year-old’s friends.

(Photo: Meghnad Bose/The Quint)

Lyrics: Prabuddha Jain
Video Editor: Prashant Chauhan

Ankit would say that there is no greater religion than humanity.

Chetan Narang, Ankit’s Friend

Ankit Saxena’s love story, and his life, was cut short at the age of 23. His only crime was that he dared love a girl who was born to pray to a different god. Faith did not come in the way when the two fell in love. In fact, friends remember Ankit as a believer of many faiths.

Temple, gurudwara, mosque, church - we used to go visit every place of worship. It was Ankit who would take us to all these places. He used to believe in every faith. He never discriminated against any religion.

Chetan Narang, Ankit’s Friend

Today, there are many who are attempting to fuel communal hatred in Ankit Saxena’s name. But his closest friends, and YouTube collaborators, will have none of it.

It wouldn’t do justice to his memory, they say.

Ankit is an icon of love, not hate. If anything, we must spread love in Ankit’s name.

Ashish Duggal, Ankit’s Cousin

‘Ankit Dreamt of Being on TV’

Ankit’s cousin Ashish reminisces, “He wanted to become famous, he dreamt of being on TV one day. Who would’ve thought that when we finally saw him on television, it would be in circumstances like these?”

Ankit thought that starting a YouTube channel would be a good first step towards a future shot as a Bollywood actor. He named the channel ‘Awaara Boy’.

Ashish Duggal, Ankit’s Cousin

His friend and namesake, Ankit Rao, breaks into a nostalgic smile as he recalls the fun times they had shooting for ‘Awaara Boy’ prank videos. “It was a fun-loving YouTube channel. Ankit would direct and edit the videos himself. Now with him gone, I guess we’ll have to learn the ropes. We want to keep the page alive.”

Faith No Bar

Md Azhar Alam was one of Ankit’s closest friends and an ‘Awaara Boy’ too. Before the murder, he was just like any other friend of his. Today, he is a victim of abusive and communal trolling online.

I am a Muslim. There is a group picture in which all of us are there, including Ankit. But people are sharing that photo with a red mark circled around my face saying that I too am “one of them”, from the faith of the murderers. They don’t know thatI was one of Ankit’s closest friends, and he was one of mine.

Md. Azhar Alam, Ankit’s Friend

Have tensions developed between Ankit’s family and Azhar? Far from it. Azhar accompanied Ankit’s father on his pilgrimage to Haridwar after his son’s death.

Azhar says, “I performed the puja in Haridwar with his dad. Uncle even showed me the way in which the holy dip is taken in the Ganga. I took the dip with him, I prayed with him.”

Building a Country of Love

जहां कोई मनोज, कोई बबली
कोई अंकित कत्ल नहीं किया जाएगा
एक मुल्क हम बनाएंगे
जिसमें प्यार पर बंदिशें नहीं होंगी

Where a Manoj, a Babli, an Ankit is not killed,
We will build a nation such
In which love will have no barriers.