Reading Time: < 1 minute
A powerful and an intense woman-centric protest poem, by Dr. Roopali, exclusively for Different Truths.
They frowned at the shorts. Women’s legs are immensely desirable. Undesirable hairy legs belong to men. So, I chose to become a gypsy. Silver earrings, jingling bracelets, the paijeb hugging my ankles. The chunky necklace around my neck The long ghagra and the bandhej scarf. The leather chappals…sequinned and upturned. Ah! Such freedom in tradition. Feminism wrapped in colourful cloth. So homegrown so exotic. So ethnic they said. The nose pin, the earring the neck piece, the bracelet, the anklet the red sticky kumkum and the kohl lined eyes. The cloth bag hanging from the shoulder, twinkling myriad mirror pieces embedded in the desert colours of the Rann of Kutch. A red herring. Marx and Raymond Williams, Terry and Mary Eagleton, Simone de Beauvoir, Germaine Greer and Toril Moi and Franz Fanon hide in its soft interiors and a lunch box of pasta and cheese! Regions and borders all merged into an infinite kaleidoscope of colours. Tree green, sunflower yellow, red flame of the forest, blue sky, emerald sea, purple passionflower. A life of freedom camouflaged in sartorial rebellion.
Visual by Different Truths
