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Intrusion: A Poem On Street Harassment. Hush! Here comes an intruder. Silently sliding through the sea of people. Only to stop in the middle of it. And right next to you. You look around at the ones sitting,
You see yourself standing in a crowded bus
With Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata playing in your earphones
You try to look outside the window
The vision is blurred by the winter mist
Perfectly sprayed on the glass
Those morning office phone calls
And a perfect meeting spot
Craving for a hot cup of coffee
And wanting to sing like never before
***
Hush!
Here comes an intruder
Silently sliding through the sea of people
Only to stop in the middle of it,
And right next to you.
You look around at the ones sitting
Turning their phones on,
Looking at the time every other minute.
You could see the stress
And disappointment on those faces
When the bus got stuck in traffic.
A little acceleration and more breaks
And the intruder falls on you
He straightens himself up,
Grabs the handle,
Pretending that nothing happened!
You try to ignore it too
And take out your phone
To change the tune.
Now, the bus engine is turned off
So both the acceleration and breaks
Are put on a hold.
You feel something creeping on your back
Slowly sliding down to your ass
Your body goes numb
With just the thought
Of this little intrusion
Your mind starts bickering
About what’s real
And what just an illusion
Did what you just felt happened, really happened?
If it’s real, was his intention wrong?
Or was it just the traffic
Inside those four walls?
Before you could figure out
If this was the time when you shout
Or you lock your mouth with an
Unknown key and throw it somewhere
Where it’s never to be found;
The traffic outside those walls
Starts clearing up
And the vibrations from the engine
Pulls you out of your thoughts.
Your stop comes and you get off
With a crazy beating heart
And a banging in your head
Almost, like boring a hole
Over and over again
A hole in the memories
From just five minutes ago
You walk away
Feeling like the whole world
Knows exactly what happened.
And you feel
Every pair of eyes around you
Focused right on you.
When, really, they were just
A few blind puppets
Dancing in this world’s hall.
So much to say, but silent like a broken doll!
Image source: Still from #RukheDari Campaign| SpeakUp against Sexual Harassment by BRAC
[There are laws against street harassment, if readers found themselves or someone in a similar situation, read here for further guidance.]
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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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