I was at Silver Beach, Juhu, last night, and booked a cab around 10:30-10:45 to go back to Kurla, where I'm staying.

As I got in the cab, I called a friend of mine and we were talking about protest cultures in different cities, what happened at Shaheen Bagh yesterday, people's discomfort with Laal Salaam and how we could make Jaipur's protests more effective.

10-20 minutes into the conversation, my Uber driver stopped and asked if he could use the ATM, I enthusiastically agreed. Minutes later, he came back with two policemen and that's when I realised he had gotten me to a police station.

The policemen asked me where I was from and why I was carrying a dafli, I told them I'm from Jaipur and that I was carrying the dafli because I was sloganeering at Mumbai Bagh earlier in the afternoon. The cab driver said "Sir aap isko andar lo, ye desh jalane ki baat kar raha hai, bol raha hai main communist hoon, hum Mumbai mein Shaheen Bagh banadenge, mere paas poori recording hai."

I told the policemen to listen to the recording and arrest me if they find me saying "Hum desh jala denge" or anything that is inciting or can be perceived as anti-national, I turned to the Uber driver and said "Sir, aapko kis baat ka bura laga, ye batao, aap police station kyu le aaye ho mujhe itni si baat pe?"

He responded with "Tum desh barbaad kardoge aur hum dekhtey rahenge? Main kahin aur le jaa sakta tha tujhe, shukr mana police station laaya hun."

It was in that moment that I felt unsettled, some sense of fear set in and stayed throughout the night. But I texted Rahul and a few other friends and sent them my live location.

The Uber driver kept yelling at me through out.

I was, then questioned in the police station, they asked me about my ideology, and people I read. And other absurd questions and they asked him to give his statement and took mine, which included unnecessary details like my father's salary, and how I sustain myself without a job. The kind of poems I write, my social media handles. I had come to Bombay because I was invited to read at Kala Ghoda, and they insisted on me giving them the email of the organiser, which I refused but agreed to concede the first name. They also kept asking me why I was carrying a dafli.

At around 1, Comrade S Gohil came and I was let go shortly after. However, the police was polite throughout the course of this inquiry and advised me not to carry my dafli around and/or wear a red scarf because "abhi mahaul kharab hai, kucch bhi ho sakta hai."

But I was still feeling unsafe, so my friend and I got our luggage and moved to a different place to stay.