"Truth" - A Poem by Tahreen Fatima

 

Truth

Truth is like the Sun. 

Although it drowns for the night, 

It will rise the next morning 

And shine again. 

Truth is also a lot like Love. 

Often difficult to find. 

But when found, 

Impossible to forget. 

Truth speaks— 

without a tongue, 

without a voice. 

And truth reveals, 

The human crying beneath the very smile you wear; 

Or the monster lingering within your loved one. 

Truth is not just a bed of roses, 

So learn to embrace the thorns. 

Truth is the shadow that dances 

Forever, from dusk till dawn. 

Truth is the only virtue that does both—

Hurts and Heals. 

Hurts the Heart, 

Heals the Soul!

                                                    - Tahreen Fatima (BtCFs)

"Manisha" by Tasleem Fathima

Manisha 

What's the use of making so many highways when there isn't a single street in India where women can roam freely?

What's the use of so many schemes made by the system, when the system itself fails to give justice to the victim?

What happened with Manisha was the death of humanity. The culprits aren't from another planet, they live in the same place we belong.

They could be one of our relatives.


Don't wait for any administration to introduce one more void document to deal with these incidents. Instead, we’ll deal with this ourselves.

Yes we can! But how?

Let not the fire of Manisha's body cool down. Let it burn until the dark night fades out, giving way to natural enlightenment. Let's be the one percent change we want to bring in the society.

Irrespective of your gender, teach your grandfather, father, brother, uncle, professor, boyfriend, colleagues to respect women. If they don't care about that, then tell them to value their own life which came out of a vagina, that belongs to the same community where another woman was raped and received no justice. Where the victim would be remembered as another abused vagina.

Eventually the one percent change will sum up to a hundred, creating a peaceful society to live where everyone is Human. 

                                                                                                           - Tasleem Fathima (MSCs)

"Stargazed" by Sunena Kawle

Stargazed

There were so many questions

How to do it?

Am I capable?

Is it worth it?

The society, my family?

Hesitancy, doubt, fear

Now constant companions,

I gathered my courage

Even as my soul was anxious.

I went on the mat

I fought and wrestled,

I came out, lost and beaten:

Thirteen seconds was all it took.

Days turned into weeks,

Weeks into months.

They are now a collection of

Scars and bruises,

Old and new.

I went onto the mat again,

Willful and ambitious;

I came out

Stargazed and victorious.

                                             - Sunena Kawle (BA)

"The Gordian Knot" by Aishwarya Lakkakula

 

The Gordian Knot 

She ties a knot 

with a snake in the grass. 

She steps in a water—

Sharks waiting in hunger. 

Her life is a feast 

for the vultures waiting for her to sleep. 

Her nine days' wonder 

Ends with a flash of thunder! 

Her blood is sucked 

and the bones are crushed. 

Her breast is burnt 

and the womb is raped. 

No part of her is left—

even the least. 

The music is faced and the bullet is bitten. 

Only because the knot is tied! 

The knot is tied 

to rape her. 

The knot is tied 

to crush her. 

The knot is tied 

to kill her. 

The strength of the three knots, 

I wonder! 

Stronger than a Gordian knot! 

And her seventh heaven never comes back... 

Departing, not to have a way back.

                                                    - Aishwarya Lakkakula (BA)