The Kunduli Girl

I was walking home from school
Running along, skipping along
Playing hide and seek
In the deep jungle trails
Loving their many secrets
Chasing the dappled shadows

The bag on my shoulders
My meagre notes and books
Forgotten in my wonder world
A smile on my lips
As I went hush hush after a squirrel
...Stepping on a twig

Was the noise very loud?
What did I hear?
Was that more twigs breaking?
Foolishly, still unconcerned
As I spy the squirrel again,
But not for long...

They creep up
Trample the mossy bed
Chase away the sun's rays
And give a howl of laughter
So I know they are near
With no place to go, No place to hide

Have you seen hyenas
Hunting sniffing playing with their prey
I am the prey
The bloody boots finally leave
With my smile... hunger satiated
Over my trodden bag, broken body

That was not the end
My halting story uttered
Hunted, haunted, deserted
My tale twisted, my virginity plundered
Many times over
I was a pariah, thrown to a hostel away from home

That was still not the end
Woken up at midnight for interrogation
Proven guilty by the learned
Police, doctors, human rights
Women commission, judges
For speaking up means guilty

This girl; How could she be raped
By the very custodians of safety
It has never happened before
She must be lying
The young girl tells big tales
Luscious images of a vivid mind, maybe

A rope to end it all
Distressed, depressed,
Disowned in many ways
An object of shame, pity, distrust
isolation, disgrace
And a hundred days of plunder

But that was again not the end.
The body dragged to the streets
Politician across parties
Fighting for their scrap of glory
Death too doesn't give dignity
While the jungle keeps it's secret, still

The only end is not to be born.

PS
There are some tales which are so sad they need to be told and retold. Everyday we feel we have seen the worst... when actually the worst is around the corner. I would honestly have liked to name this poem "the death of humans".

Of Many Colours

Of Many Colours

I wore blue today.

Royal Blue

That is how I feel when I step out under the winter sky

Bluebells on the hedges, blue bougainvilleas with their fluttering dry paper leaves

Ice cold blue with blue bangles

You had better keep your distance from me

So they don’t offend you, my blue veins that stand out

Getting up in the morning, taking my bath at dawn

Washing those left over dishes

And drying those cold clothes

I wore blue today

To feel the glitter in my blue eyes, for I am tired of feeling grey

Is pink my colour?

It gives the colour to my cheeks

When my husband brings me a gift

But more often when my in laws point out my mistakes

I can hide under my pink lips, bangles and ribbons

The blushes turn to anger soon

Again that is pink and can be kept under wraps

Like my pink dupatta which hid my embarrassment

From the repulsive maulings

Of a revered teacher or a co-passenger or a kin

So I wear a brighter pink

To hide behind my anger, desire, pleasure and... sometimes loathing

  

The warm feel of the soft grass

The distant trees forming the skyline of a deserted road

The verdant reflection in the nearby pool

The creepers on the wall reaching out to the sun on the roof

Their tender tendrils seeking a toehold

Warm, new, ever growing

Soaking up the dust mites, carbon

Green is my colour

Born in the tussle between Mother Earth and Sun and its siblings

Green won in tentative steps

Over a billions of years

So how can I wreck it in a few planned moves of destruction over a hundred years?

Bright and Sunny yellow

Nothing keeps it down

Flitting from flowers to flowers on the wings of a butterfly

Or gracing the newly weds in the woven marigold

Cheery and Chirpy but always graceful

Yellow knows

Life is a myth

Nothing lasts and nothing is yours

Like the yellow sun bleaches all it falls on

Time washes away all memories

Except perhaps the fabricated ones, all man made

Yellow is my colour: which holds an eternity in every moment

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This poem is inspired by the bright colourful sarees worn by Indian women and relates them to her various moods. I would appreciate your comments and suggestions.