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This beautiful poem pays tribute to Gauri Lankesh and to all those who refuse to stay silent even when answered with abuse and threats.
She was born with a voice like all of us are but sooner or later sell it to fear or favour either of the two
but she held on to this voice of her soul this calling a spade a spade in the dark times of abuse and troll
She owned this voice and gave it fiercer words her dissent was her arrow her armour and swords
but who likes a voice? A woman with a choice A newspaper with questions Enquiries and allegations It is not in the great culture To speak against the great Quietly accept their follies as their greatness or fate
She stood alone in the storm Holding the flag high The resistance grew stronger And the attacks more sly Bitch, whore, traitor The commonest labels To silence the dissent In ideological battles
She the brave one was still undeterred courage is often feeble never bartered even when battered
She used her words to Write their crimes As Brecht said once The dark songs for these darkest times when institutions become weaker and dissent a pantomime
A brave warrior woman who speaks her mind
was so unbearable for a dictatorship blind
when force or coercion could not stifle the outcry a bullet for the truth that had dared to defy
It is not pen against a gun or gun against a pen It is violence against us One by one
but one final day The dictator will not have the last laugh Her voice shall live on Even in her epitaph:
“Tolerating an injustice is as bad as committing one.”
Pooja Priyamvada is an author, columnist, translator, online content & Social Media consultant, and poet. An awarded bi-lingual blogger she is a trained psychological/mental health first aider, mindfulness & grief facilitator, emotional wellness trainer, reflective read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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