Phoolan, a symbol :
a gun nurtured by society,
A destructive weapon, and
I am The Sentinel of the new world.
Phoolan, you are one among us
The gun in your hand teases me
Asks me to pull the trigger
Puts the bullet through them.
Whom I should shoot with the gun
Filled with hatred?
Who is my bloody enemy whom
I can destroy completely?
Phoolan, I testify you
Into the bright lights of halogens
Tell me, who are you:
A female, a mother
A wife, a Shudra
An object?
Tell me Phoolan!
What did you do against those
Who called you female?
What did you do against those
Who declared you a Shudra?
What did you do against those
who humiliated you
by objectifying you?
What did you do against those
who glamorized you?
It’s difficult to find an answer to
these questions,
isn’t it, Phoolan?
I can easily put bullets.
Through the heart of
patriarchy
But is patriarchy my enemy or Caste which attacks in disguise and in secrecy.
When can I delete it?
So that it won’t give birth to slaves
and their own be any
cacophony of slaves voices.
Phoolan,
I am reading history once again
Phoolan,
I am reading the present once again
Phoolan,
I am composing a new rhyme of Identity
From their stories
Phoolan,
I have become
the lustre of the new sky.
I have become
the Quest of transformation.
I have become
the pillar of hope I have become the womb of liberation
I have become
the analysis of present
I have become
the blue Shadow Of ‘War’
I have become
the fathomless path
Phoolan,
Change the direction
of your gun
Identify the enemy
in front of you
check your gun
let your gun be aware of
history
develop
the Quest of destruction in it.
Let your gun
see the world in its entirety
In front of your gun.
Don’t keep Mulhaija
for the truth and the untruth
for the right and the wrong
For the friend and the foe and
For the executor of your humiliation.
-This translated poem is from book- We the rejected people of India by Yogesh Maitreya, published by Panther’s Paw Publication
English