It is Right to Say
I am heartbroken
Sometimes it is right to say that
flat out
naked voiced
I am empty
I am sad
I wish this thirst, this sore throat,
this myocardial infarction
this worthlessness
this grief
this doom
would exit in one full throttle glottal raging
yell of pure sound
and leave me...Read More »
Having Found Ourselves in Separate Bodies
I spread turmeric
On my lover’s skin because
The unfortunate truth of
Having found ourselves
In separate bodies
Means
When I touch I do not feel
And I wish to know
Where her every invisible minuscule hair
Connects to its own nerve.
And the spice specks stack up
In yellow...Read More »
Cried G-D
When Cain killed Abel
He plead ignorance
G-d did not challenge this
But said: Abel’s blood cries out to me from the earth
Some may lead blessed lives in the bliss of ignorance, and G-d does not challenge it
But know this:
All spilt blood cries G-d
What this means is
Review: White Tiger
Winner of the Man Booker prize 2008, White Tiger has been read and loved throughout the world and surrounded by constant controversy in the sub-continent. I had been planning to read the book for ages but the hectic life of an MBBS had not yet allowed me to enjoy the...Read More »
Dreaming of Darcy
When I am standing by the railing, you come up from behind me. Like in some epic romance, your arms wrap around my waist and your cheek fits snugly at my temple. I can feel the warmth of your chest rising and I can feel the hollow it leaves between...Read More »
Transnational South Asian Sexualities: Drag and Performance in London
I first encountered drag in Bollywood films in the late 90’s (Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, Dulhan Hum Le jayenge etc). At that point I never really thought much about the complexities that exist within female impersonation. Used as a form of entertainment in popular culture, drag artists were usually assayed...Read More »
Police Brutality from Margins to Centre
November 26, 2010. It was Amir’s birthday, an annual function that is celebrated by most Eunuchs. The police illegally raided the occasion based on reports that drugs and alcohol were being consumed behind closed doors. The police arrested most of the people at the party as well as Amir. While...Read More »
Of Balls, Testosterone and Pappus: Love in Odd Places
Education at cadet colleges often comes off as insentient and inanimate; snubbing and rebuffing all human emotions. However, standing alongside roads in apparent bliss, gathered around a sheesha in obvious joy and amassed outside girl’s colleges in those moments of open, guilty pleasure; boys of civilian colleges in their adolescence...Read More »
Hero
I read the news about judgement in Mukhtaran Mai’s case with the same horror and disappointment that many in Pakistan felt and expressed. It is a terrible thing to see justice undone like this, at the hands of a supposedly victorious, independent judiciary, brought back to the bench through...Read More »