For Sneha

For Sneha, a brave and spirited woman, who was found possibly raped, and murdered in a hotel room in Munger, Bihar.

She was a shining example of a state
That has become a metaphor- Bihar.
She fought for independence, for disengagement.
From her tribes of yore.
She revolted to become a phenomenal woman.
To break the shackles of slavery
Her womankind had been bruised with.
She revelled in laughter, in children, in the little things.
She turned the government on its head
Being a part of the system that mocked her.
Working, shoulder to shoulder, with men
Who wondered agape at her ferocity.
She gave herself to educating the little ones-
Still clueless of the marshes that lay before them.

She now hangs, by a chlorine scented bedsheet
From the window- semi-nude, for the world to see.
They heard her muffled screams, they heard that cry.
And muted themselves against the carnal monster
Feeding himself off her.

They said it was suicide.
They said it was HER.
She is dead now. Dead.
In the inhumanity of your warm, safe homes.
Dead. In the sub-altern theories
Written with your pens of power.
Dead. In the comforts of marginalisation.

Go. To. Sleep.