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ISSN: 0974-892X

VOL. VI
ISSUE I

January, 2012

 

 

Challapalli Swarupa Rani

Forbidden History

(Translated by T. S. Chandra Mouli)
  
As a babe in the womb
depicted as an untouchable
stamped with a low caste, I was born.
That day itself  branded a slut
amidst senseless rules
in the cesspools of superstitions
cast away, I became forbidden woman.
My childhood  that should grow
amidst pampering, scampering
has prelude of  sorrowful songs.
Soaked in the loving care of my parents
my infancy that should bloom into adolescence
with the deity in the shrine as witness
gets unveiled as a doll in a shop.
In the shameless ultra modernity
that paraded us  naked
cremating our tender youth
forcing us eat night soil
a strange story is mine.
Scorns of generations
indifference of ages
I carry as a legacy.
In this holy land of ‘karma’
as a newborn infant yet to open eyes
credit for the identity as a ‘prostitute’, is mine.
My story that demands
all cyber revolutions to lower their heads
at once
in to stone ages,
will be inscribed in which canto
in the annals of this country’s history?

[In some parts of Karnataka state there is a practice of tender aged girl children from dalit families becoming  ‘Basivis ,  pleasure givers to village men]