I put on a pink
lipstick and curled my hair
Wore my heels and
slit in my skirt, without a care
Chin up and chest
out, I walked towards the ac cab
“Ooooh the
traffic”, my senses vibrating
Didn’t matter
really, I was in the 1% slab [1% people who paid income tax in India]
I scrolled for
bits of news, looked at some twitter
Checked the time
& cursed at the Dadar litter
Working in a
‘prestigious’ corporation
I am the upper
caste middle class ambition
who praises
modernity and vouches for equality
Just before
dissolving into my vanity,
My eyes fell upon
a despicable old woman
Shrouded by
poverty and bespoke of filth
Ideally my
attention should have given her its silt
But I just
happened to sit and stare
Hoping she
wouldn’t see me in an avatar
That is probably
of an alien who’s raided her world
Holding on, I kept
at it – feeling pity, my eyes ajar
She slided her glance
and looked directly at me
Incase she could,
in my heart, see
Ashamed and
guilty, I looked away
Dare not to look
out, my head would sway
Tears of
humiliation trickled down my cheeks
As I asked myself,
so what if the GDP peaks!!
That woman spoke
no words and yet
She sang a saga
for millions of us
Only if we
listened through our hearts at times
Stopped the drama,
chucked the fuss
She sat still as a
stone
And yet sent
chills down my spine
I imagined the
reality of her and me standing in the same line [The
idea of India – Constitutions confers us political equality – the line to vote
where all irrespective of class or caste stand to cast the vote which has equal
power]
The mirage of
equality shattered, the illusion of privilege knackered
my arrogance and
pride put into place
by who, the one
who probably had little solace
I screamed in my
head and felt enraged
My heart was
conflicted, my spirit was caged
She brought down
the shining India in one glance of an eye
Do I exist as is, or
a stigma of a reality?
I sat in the cab
numb and stooped
Low enough and yet
to continue
In the dream of a glass
building
Making graphs
& sending emails undue
Silently ignoring
the voice that stood witness
to the paltry of
many, and the abundance of few
Sleepless nights I
tossed and turned
Wondering if a
poem could be churned
To call for
attention and to seek some life
In the lifeless
concrete and relentless strife
Of making it big
and having it all
Of paying those
bills, and delivery on call
Of playing up such
passions, that compete like rats
We’re human, there’s
richness of emotion
Is it okay if I
don this hat?
Stuck in a vicious
loop, the questions never seem to end
Somewhere as I
type, the letter begin to bend
As my eyes narrow
and my heart starts to sink
No use of lips
that red and those so pink
If they don’t
smile to those who need it the most
Those in the
middle of deserts or waters far away from the coast
I forever ask
myself, where do I begin
Do I continue to
shun or blindly sign-in
Those eyes will
never leave my sight
Perhaps, their
powerlessness was their might
Answers to these
questions may forever remain obscure
I am relieved I
could ask at the least, if not endure.
