An Ossathi’s Daughter
There had been rumours spreading through the village in the last couple of days, and finally, there it was—an actual television set.
रिंकू की कविताएं
मैं एक लड़की, एक दुसाध-दलित लड़की, एक मध्यम वर्ग से आने वाली लड़की, जो घर को घर जैसा नहीं देखती, घर क्या है नही समझती, और परिवार कौन और कैसे बनता है इस खोज में हूं। मेरे लिए घर के मायने बदल रहे है, परिवार के मायने बदल रहे है। Illustration by Ajinkya Dekhane ‘एक […]
Why is Holika Dahan Celebrated?
The celebration of Holi is the celebration and legitimisation of the routine violence and caste atrocities against Dalit women. The fact that it continues nationwide to this day is shameful and cruel, and nothing other than a publicly sponsored atrocity against Dalit women communities. Illustration by Ajinkya Dekhane Holika Dahan or the ‘Burning of Holika’ […]
A Faith to Bite Into
My friend, Rev John Boopalan, a Dalit liberation theologian, told me that most Christians come to Ambedkar through Jesus. A fiery leader who sacrifices everything, life and death, for his people’s liberation. Not a comparison on a facetious level but for recognition like an arrow through the heart.
शहरी अभियान और सभ्यता का नाटक
पिछले दिनों
शहर के अलग-अलग हिस्सों में
पागल कुत्तों के झुंड ने
कई लोगों को काटा
समुद्र देखने का विशेषाधिकार
समुद्र दिखाना है मेरी मां को,
उसने देखा नहीं कभी
Caste Hindu Nationalism and Trans Citizenship
It is the marginalized millions within the given nation-state that challenge its imposed uniformity & enforced uniform nationalism by asserting the right to touch, to see & be seen, to voice out & be heard beyond the negligible that’s sanctioned.
Wretched Man
On the road,
there was a wretched man,
a man who was wretched,
who was lying in the middle of the road
वो धार थी
वो धार थी
कटार थी
The Meeting Under The Banyan Tree: A Short Memoir
As a ‘first generation’ Dalit, I tried to share my confusion about my ‘Dalit-hood’ with fellow ‘assertive’ anti-caste people but it was counterintuitive. They could not process why a person born in a Dalit family should be asking if she is ‘Dalit-enough’