Indraprastha Extension

I furtively keep looking over my shoulder
While I try to reach my society as soon as possible
As the dark shatters the Palace of Illusions
Somewhere in Indrasprastha Extension

Illusions that we live in a modern era
Where women are empowered
And are respected as human beings
I wonder whether my safety is a delusion.

Matsyagandhas turn to Yojangandhas
Inside the many beauty parlors in Madhu Vihar
In order to become desirable to men
We still undergo these transformations.

Then we feature in matrimonial
Both on newspapers and online
Just waiting like Amba and her sisters
For a family sanctioned abduction.

The Childlike Kuntis in convent schools
Remain unprepared for sexual advances
The lack of knowledge renders us
Incapable of articulating protestations.

Eyes like the lustful ones which tried to rake
Draupadi’s bare flesh after the game of dice
Can be found on buses, streets and metros,
In a way, we  all experience her humiliation.
 
The most frustrating and enraging of them all
Are the Gandharis who jog and gossip in the parks
They choose blindness and do nothing about their sons
When women suffer because of their heinous temptations.

The Palace of Illusions is razed to the ground
And we find the same stories and women
Just in denims and permanently straightened hair
We live in the same Indraprastha’s Extension .