Bruised, but not Broken (poems)
-Challapalli Swarooparani
29. Banjara
Whenever I see Banjara hills
Sturdy, stunning
I’m reminded of Banjara baby Monie
Who hasn’t a spoon of muscle
On her bones
She may not contain
A pint of blood in her body
Her honeyed talk is enough
To infuse energy
Into the body
Of her Banjara colony.
She throws the door
And enters the room
It was like the rush of fresh breeze
In her strange Sugali slang
Our warding drifted away.
When she stayed off
Our home soaks in silence
If she suffered from fever
The whole street missed a meal
The chatting with stem-like Monie
Gumptions enormous strength.
Now there isn’t a trace of her
Perhaps, she melted into the road
To reduce the burden of mom and dad.
Oh, Monie,
The skinny Banjara chick,
It is not that we don’t have here
A little piece of place for you
Rather, O girl, we lack the guts
To accept your very girlhood!
(Telugu: “Tanda pilla”, translation, N. R. Tapaswi and published in Face Book Timeline of the author.)
*****
(To be continued-)
Challapalli Swaroopa Rani hails from a village, Pyaparru, Guntur District, Andhra Pradesh. She is one of the five daughters of Mariyamma and Mantraiah. Went to Govt school in her place, completed her college at Guntur, the District head quarters. Then shifted to Hyderabad Central University and involved in student politics as a founder member of Ambedkar Student’s Association. She had her master’s in History & Archaeology, M.Phil in Medieval History and Ph. D in Regional Studies. Swaroopa has obtained Gold Medal in her Masters Examinations. She has got her first recruitment as Asst. Professor in History at Potti Sriramulu Telugu University, Srisailam and got selected as Associate Professor in Buddhist Studies in Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur. She lives in Vijayawada. Presently she is a Professor of Buddhist Studies and Director, Center for Women’s Studies in the same University. She is specialized in studies on Buddhism, Caste, Religion, Gender, Tribal Studies, People’s Culture and Literature.