KAMATIPURA

 

Rancid smells, swarming flies, tiny rooms in crumbling buildings

Little girls…grown women with empty eyes

Stare unflinchingly at male passers-by

Semi clad, gesticulating, beckoning, promising heaven in hell

Nameless bodies used and reused, for pleasure, never knowing pleasure

Minds numbed, eyes dry, no more tears

No one cares, no one ever did…

 

There is only flesh wherever you look…no souls…no people

Who are these women ? Why are they here?

Where did they come from? Who brought them here?

What do they feel as they are mauled by uncaring men?

How many times a day are they ravished…over and over again?

No one cares…no one ever did

 

Then there are scavengers …to chew on what’s left of the kill

Pretending to care…pretending to want to make the world aware

Articles , documentaries, movies that win awards…for “sensitivity”

Read, watched and forgotten, by the world in a week

Anyone sensitive enough to give one of these women his name?

No one cares…no one ever did

 

So it goes on, the rape and plunder, the humiliation of womankind

And if you listen very carefully at night, in Kamatipura

You might hear a thousand souls screaming for help

Turn a deaf ear if you like….

But beware…when you let your daughter out alone !!!!

Because no one  cares…no one  ever did

~Swati Chandran~

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