No i don’t fit into your “India”,

I am not a good indian girl,

your definitions –

they bind, restrict, constrict,

They make me alien.

my mother’s name – it appalls you,

my inheritance – it shocks you,

my freedom – it angers you.

So when you ask me

To follow the indian culture

Be the good indian girl,

i tell you – i love variations,

i love variations in languages,

i love variations in clothing, gender,

food, eye shapes, sexuality,

variation is life, variation is growth.

Why? you ask, do you

why do you go to places

where men masturbate –

the roads, the buses, the bus stands,

the rocks in university,

Good indian girls-

they stay safe,

they wear safe,

they talk safe,

they think safe.

they wear bindis, they wear saris,

but the rest is not good enough for you.

they are patriotic in obeying –

their fathers, husbands, the government.

if my freedom doesn’t anger you,

it draws out an ugly and perverted

sense of entitlement.

but you’re a free person, Natha,

you’re not the nice Indian girl,

how can you be uncomfortable?

don’t you do this with other men anyway?

Or you think i am some wild

Innocent tribal

So you can be my benefactor.

And your sense of entitlement

Is punctured when i say “no, thank you”.

Then you say i’m brainwashed by feminism,

As if feminism uses a detergent,

Oh yes, it comes in pink (smile)

No i don’t fit into your definitions,

I will not keep quiet when you

violate my body, my privacy,

my mind through emotional guilt tripping.

No i don’t fit into your “India”,

I am not a good Indian girl,

your definitions –

they bind, restrict, constrict,

They make me alien.

Related

Have your say

comments