Telling them

With all this talk

day in and night out

of god-like children

getting torn to shreds

in their formative years.

With all this hullabaloo

in the media and on walls of public urinals

those scavengers carefully

wash their hands off

the puke and virgin blood.

With all the screams

on the streets of slogans

against such monstrosity

those hyenas laugh in the noise

blocking the babbles we would never decipher.

With all this technology

we play with and that is playing with us

blurring any lines that used to separate

with a new app born at the rate of a girl child

they penetrate slow but deep.

Do I need a piece of human made technology

to tell me that I have been penetrated into

without my will?

Do I need to stop wearing my scarf

to show that I too am beaten blue

in places I would rather hide?

Do I need to increase the length of my clothes

and walk less promiscuously

away from spaces that make me at fault?

Do I need to hide indoors and hide my self

and give in to the monsters at home

because I am dissed for everything I am unable to do?

Do I need to silence my howls at night

because this man called a ‘husband’ thinks

I have no consent the moment I am marred by this symbolic red powder ?

Do I need to change who I am

and who I want to be

only to protect

my mind

my sanity

my sanctity

my vagina

my face

my beauty

my child

my legacy

my self

my hair

Do I need to tell them

that

my vagina is not me?

~ Rachana Iyer

Rachana has completed her Masters in Social work from TISS, Mumbai. She has worked in urban and rural projects specifically in sectors of disability inclusive development, (YWCA, Disha Kendra, TISS field action projects), use of ICT in agriculture @ Digital Green. She has also run a project in the UAE called Ana Able (translating from arabic into I am Able) where she took sensitization workshops with universities and corporates on the need for inclusive environments and importance of diverse work places).