‘Safe Spaces’

Welcome to your safe space.

You know what the damn problem with human beings is? We’ve been pushed to be far too complacent to the systems that we adhere to.

Human beings are ugly on the inside – at least those, who have been treated like human beings all their lives.

We hide behind our college degrees, and write our dissertations on revolution.

We read inaccessible French theory and apply it to our current day scenarios and yell at the top of our lungs – ‘what is the place of the woman?’

We have heated arguments in the corridors and go downstairs to the floors to celebrate our burgeoning sexualities that do not fit the norm.

While every single conversation is dominated by our privileged knowledge.

We consume and consume and consume knowledge and feed and feed and feed our egos.

Only to work a 9 to 5 corporate job – or those of us who are lucky enough to teach from 9 to 5 at a corporate educational institution.

But we are complacent, and we cannot escape.

We turn on the news and say, “what a shame to see our democracy in shambles”.

We go to the bar at 9pm, argue with the law students and the business students and ask them why they submit themselves to the system.

In the same breath we question the place of the woman and yell out the lyrics of a song that objectifies us either way.

We walk around without the use of our surnames – casteless we call ourselves without recognising that our own savarna identities are empty shells filled with rhetoric, poetry and drinks and games.

And when the ugliness knocks at our doors, when the garbage heaps move too close to our homes – we turn our faces, homes and lives away.

Now you see dear reader, I do not intend to blame us all. Nor do I intend to suggest that we must not fight our little battles. All I wished to do is bring a few things to your notice.

I thought poetry and politics would be a good way to spend my evening.

Well, I was told this was a safe space.

Ansuya Mansukhani is an undergraduate student of Liberal Arts in Pune. She expresses herself through writing and enjoys reading, cooking, photography and everything ordinary.

Featured image: DuoNguyen/Unsplash