Skip to main content

Trapped

Sitting in the auto
I wondered, are my jeans fitted enough.
Or should I lose an inch here, get more toned there?
Then I heard a whizzing sound.
A woman, ordinary enough, salwar-kameez clad.
Torso upwards she was slightly pudgy.
But it was her legs that made me instantly ashamed.
Shrunken limbs hers were, completely and utterly
wasted away.
She whirred by me in an electric wheelchair.
Looking neither right or left, but straight ahead.
Sitting in my auto, bound by my own and society's conventions
To look good, to stay young
I wondered
Is she really trapped, or am I?
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My other uterus

Read the other day about an American woman who had twins. Nothing exceptional in that, except that she has a condition called uterus didelphys, a rare congenital phenomenon where the uterus comprises not one, but two cavities or two separate uteruses. Basically, the babies grew in the two uterii. Okay so what, you think. Well, I have two uteruses (or uterii, or whatever), too. And I just had a baby. My baby grew in my right uterus, so the left one was empty. But it kinda made way as the right one expanded over a period of nine months. So did my stomach stick out on one side? Nope. It looked like every other pregnant woman's tummy. It was only different on the inside. This uterus didelphys is a tricky thing. Doctors will tell you that conception is well nigh impossible with this condition. That you need fertility treatment, IVF, pill-popping, all the very best medical science can offer. And of course, if you also have poly cystic ovaries like I do, things look even worse. But gues
3 comments
Read more

Pain (a short-fiction piece)

"Shalu, open the door. For god's sake, let me see you. Please, can we talk?” She can hear the desperation in Ajith's voice. In the background, a child is crying loudly, their son. He is scared something is wrong with amma and appa. His hands, feet and neck are red and slightly swollen. The mark of an angry hand is clearly visible. Her hand.   She cannot open the door. cannot move, the pain inside her so full to bursting that only a greater pain can make it bearable. This hand I used to hit him, she mumbles to herself, this hand, I wish I could cut it off, if only...it will break, crumble into nothingness. Just like me, just like me.... She stops, body bruised and aching. Throwing herself against the wall again and again, to dull the pain inside, has left her knuckles grazed, but the bones are not broken. No, not so easy to break, she thinks. Not so easy to erase what I have done to the one being who is solely dependent on me. I am a monster. Outside the locked door
2 comments
Read more

Hooked

I think I'm hooked. Totally and absolutely Booked. I've got it real bad And that's kinda sad. Shopping was never my thing It didn't give me a zing. Problem is, this is so easy Sounds darn cheesy. But when I spot a deal Half-price, what a steal! It's like I'm manic Some kind of panic. No time to ponder, or reflect Here goes nothing, what the heck! First I click on buy Then I go, oh my! For I've done it again Seen a sale, felt the pain Of being afflicted Totally addicted To shopping online Come rain or shine. So yeah, I'm hooked, Absolutely booked. I don't know what to do. How about you? ______________________
Post a Comment
Read more