When I joined Government Dental College, Thiruvananthapuram, in 2000, as an 18-year-old, I arrived with more confidence than clarity. I came from Government Women’s College, where politics was everywhere, in classrooms, corridors, and canteens. Like many of my peers, I leaned towards left politics, without having even a rudimentary understanding of the ideology. But I had grown up believing one thing quite firmly: in a democracy, being apolitical was not an option.