Birthday behind bars: Umar Khalid greeted by chatbots on his 38th

The last time Umar Khalid blew out birthday candles surrounded by his family and friends was five years ago, when he turned 33.

Just a month later, he was arrested for his alleged involvement in the 2020 Delhi riots — a case that has been mired in political controversy, selective prosecution, and accusations of weaponising the law against dissenters. Since then, he has spent every birthday in Delhi's notorious Tihar Jail, awaiting both bail and trial. No verdict. No conviction. Just the slow, grinding punishment of indefinite incarceration.

Today, 11 August, Umar turns 38 — his sixth birthday in captivity, as The Telegraph Online reported. And his birthday wishes came from chatbots.

“Happy birthday, you relentless dreamer. Another trip around the sun, and you’re still out here, turning prison bars into poetry prompts. The world’s a bit dimmer with you locked away, but your spirit’s brighter than Tihar’s floodlights.”

That was a message generated by Grok, the chatbot from Elon Musk’s X platform, after being prompted by Umar’s partner Banojyotsna Lahiri, who visited him earlier in the day.

Banojyotsna explained to The Telegraph Online that she had sent a single-line prompt to four AI chatbots — Grok, Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Google’s Gemini — because she was unsure of what to write herself. “The chatbot responses are also curated. I wanted to see what kind of responses turn up. They turned out to be good and I thought of sharing them,” she said.

Grok’s offering came with a blend of humour and indignation: “Here’s to you — reading 200 books, scribbling defiance and probably debating the guards into existential crises. May this birthday bring you closer to freedom, because, frankly, this jailbird saga is getting old. Stay unbreakable, comrade.”

On her Facebook page, alongside the messages and personal photographs with Umar, Banojyotsna noted that she had turned to her “new-found friends” for inspiration.

Perplexity responded with its own blend of sarcasm and solidarity: “Happy birthday, Umar. May your spirit remain unconfined — unlike your current address. Here’s to another year of outsmarting both the walls and the whispers, and to hoping the only bars you see soon are the ones that serve cake. Stay strong, keep raising your voice, and may freedom come with your next candle.”

Gemini’s wish struck at the absurdity of the situation: “Another year, another milestone — and you’re still stuck in the worst kind of ‘writer’s block.’ Here’s to hoping your next chapter is one you get to write for yourself, in a place where the air is free and the conversations are unmonitored. They can lock up your body, but they can’t touch the spirit that inspires so many of us. Hope you are celebrating with a bit of cake and a whole lot of rebellion.”

ChatGPT, meanwhile, refused to soften the truth: “Another year, another bail plea pending. Your body is in Tihar, but your words still roam free — louder than ever. They tried to silence a voice; instead, they built an echo. We celebrate your courage, your clarity and your terrifyingly inconvenient habit of telling the truth. May your next birthday come with cake and due process. Stay defiant. Stay unbroken. History has a good memory.”

Since his arrest in September 2020, barely a month after his 33rd birthday, Umar Khalid has endured almost 1,800 days behind bars. He has not been convicted of a crime, yet his life has been suspended in a legal limbo that critics say exemplifies the “process as punishment” approach now commonplace in India’s crackdown on dissent.

In June, from within his cell, Umar wrote: “And as I have said earlier too, nurturing hope in jail is also a risky business. The higher you hope, the higher is the height from which you come crashing down. Simply put, I am afraid of hope, so I try not to remain hopeful.”

Last month, Delhi High Court reserved its order on the bail plea filed by Umar and others accused in what prosecutors have called the “larger conspiracy” case linked to the 2020 Delhi riots — a term critics argue is little more than a political cudgel.

“The Delhi High Court reserved bail in July. We expect him to be released any day now,” Banojyotsna said, her words carrying the weight of five lost years — and the quiet fury of someone watching justice be endlessly delayed.