Saturday, June 24, 2006

My body is a non-negotiable demand.

When will I ever understand?
That patriotism is a prerogative of the penis
Subsumed in this brahminical India,
I am the mother, I am the cow
A four legged creature, with breasts.
Milked by men at their convenience.

Stay at home and nurture the womb,
And wait till they disagree over lines again
For I am the mother-land
The battle will be fought on my body

In the name of country,
I am raped by my own army.
In the name of struggle,
I am raped by my comrades.
In the name of family,
honour, dignity... izzat
I am raped by one and all...

For every movement, indeed,
Precludes movement on my body.
A battlefield for community lines.

It is your definition of my body that I fear
A repository of culture in me,
The honour between my legs.

Please! Let me be…
I do not want to be revered any longer
Neither as land, nor as mother.

My body is mine alone.
My body belongs to me.

Please!
Just
Let
Me
Be

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

fractal truths and grey areas..

"I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing - I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong. I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of certainty about different things, but I'm not absolutely sure of anything, and many things I don't know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask why we're here, and what the question might mean. I might think about it a little bit, but if I can't figure it out, then I go on to something else. But I don't have to know an answer. I don't have to... I don't feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in the mysterious universe without having any purpose, which is the way it really is, as far as I can tell, possibly. It doesn't frighten me." --- Richard Feynman

Musings: Funny that I recall this piece today. My friend asks me for solutions. Real life. Yes or No. To be or not to be? Fair enough to indulge and be comfortable with the ambiguities of psychological theories (or the lack of it) within the protected environment of academia, but what does one do, when real life brooks no delay? And no grey areas? How does one negotiate with the multiplicities of truth?

To build on shifting grounds... is this life?