Thursday, December 28, 2006

Is my country ashamed?

Read a post on my friend Anil's blog, about this young girl, all of 17 only, who was tied up, gang-raped, beaten up, brutally (to say the very least) murdered. Her corpse was raped again and bars were shoved in her genitals, and face disfigured. Her mother suffered the same consequence. Her brothers were beaten, disfigured and killed. And in full public view. The girl was Priyanka Bhotmange, and she was an ordinary girl like any of us, with dreams of studying more, becoming a cadet and living happily ever after.

I read and re-read the post and all stories about her, saw some pictures that are making me cry even now... my skin crawled and I cringed trying to delete the scene from my mind. Yes, I want to erase all that I cannot bear, all that I don't want to know is happening around me, all that I know can happen to any one of us. I don't want to face the reality that this happened and it happened in this country and in my state.

Why am I writing about this 3 months down the line after the incident? Because I live in a self-contained world, with my own 'problems' and am having a cushy life. And happened to read, in detail, about this girl only now.

And do I care? Quite honestly, I don't know.... but then again, maybe, I do. Because I cannot explain why else am I feeling an immense anger that makes me want to castrate those men, cut off their limbs and leave them for dying. And also a terrible helplessness... for being who I am- a woman, who can be vulnerable at all times, never mind the fact who she is or how well-connected in society she is. Also not knowing what to do really.

Above all, I am ashamed...for being part of a country that on one hand worships forms of women and on the other massacres their very being, for living in a society that allows these men to scott-free by hushing the case and destroying the evidence. For being part of the brigade that beyond feeling shocked, angered and sad, will not spend more time than necessary on Priyanka.

And if this sounds like a confused post, it is.... because I don't know what I am feeling, where I stand and who I am
anymore.

Saturday, December 23, 2006

One more cup tea please.

It was one of the evenings
that saw our feet comfortably resting
on armrests high.
As we ate bhajiyas over chai,
musing over what made us and our lives….
An overwhelming urge to sift through your hair
competed with looking deeply into those dark eyes.
Tempting it was too,
to run my fingers on your lips
As mine brushed your skin with many sighs…

And you talked to me…
Oh, how you called out my name…

You spoke,
I awoke.
A reverie broken...
…and the tea gone cold.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Office staccatos

Out of my window is another world that I see
Through the glass and mullions is the place I rather be
You smile, as you see me dream…
and knowingly let me enjoy the moment
before I hear reality scream.

Friday, December 01, 2006