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Evocative poetry in the second person, penning the picture of a single mother making a living as a sex worker, a woman just trying to live her life.
You stand in front of the mirror, The pressure cooker hisses Today you boiled rice and potatoes with some ghee. Guddu loves ghee. He sleeps on the bed, His thumb between his milk teeth Two of those broken. You want to kiss his lips. Those feel like sunshine and bird feathers, And everything that is pure. Instead, you look at the mirror, You sigh. You put on a bindi And the sindoor on the parting between your hair. The sindoor has been there since Guddu was born. Long, long after Guddu’s father was gone.
And yet, this imaginary husband Makes you feel safer than he ever could. You put on the lipstick. Bright pink. Lakmé. The man last night had gifted. He works as a salesman in a cosmetics shop. Some of them gave gifts, Some left scars. You dab some powder on your face, More over the dark circles around your eyes, The pressure cooker whistles again You run and turn off the stove.
The pale blue synthetic sari hangs loosely over your frame, You pull down the petticoat and the blouse some more. Cleavage and naval are important for business. You gulp down an aspirin with a glass of water, You darken your eyes some more with kajal. It is 8 p.m. You tiptoe outside And latch your room. You call out to auntie to keep an eye on Guddu. Business as usual begins.
Published here earlier.
Image source: pixabay
Kasturi’s debut novel, forthcoming in early 2021, had won the novel pitch competition by Half Baked Beans Publishers. She won the Runner Up Position in the Orange Flower Awards 2021 for Short Fiction. Her 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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