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 […]
Continue ReadingBruised, but not Broken (poems) -Challapalli Swarooparani 28. The Pyre of Khairlanji Oh, Babasaheb Ambedkar, To whom but you Can I relate this sad episode? This minimal nation turned into A male organ Frightens me! Look at this incestuous Generation of vipers! Was there ever a brother On the face of the globe So heinous […]
Continue ReadingBruised, but not Broken (poems) -Challapalli Swarooparani 27. Mother Earth I declare this land is mine And cattiest serpents hiss furiously I till my land And it crawls around me, This Anaconda of caste and Crushes my frame. If we beseech them And not the waters Village-lakes would overflow with Our blood. Have you ever […]
Continue ReadingBruised, but not Broken (poems) -Challapalli Swarooparani 26. Song of the Hunter It makes me twist inside Twist hard This fateful statue! Seeing it I don’t get a wink of a sleep. I feel like one Whose crown has been snatched And dashed to the ground. That pointing finger Aims at our loins Hidden behind […]
Continue ReadingBruised, but not Broken (poems) -Challapalli Swarooparani 25. Corn Picker I only know how to lose But never to gain again My womanhood an affliction. I gather troubles at every step As each heaves himself up To his palanquin By stepping over my head. I am Soopanakha Who ensured Rama stayed monogamous The queen Prameela […]
Continue ReadingBruised, but not Broken (poems) -Challapalli Swarooparani 24. Mother Curry You’re the consumers of Ghee-mixed food, my lords. Till now, none has taught us, Sirs, That food has caste And gruel, religion. I swear on my mother In our abject poverty It was this curry, Sirs, That saved our race From hunger pangs And filled […]
Continue ReadingBruised, but not Broken (poems) -Challapalli Swarooparani 23. Love at Chennai Though my visits to Madras Maybe just once in a blue moon To run some errand― yet An unknown blood bond Makes the town always my own, Walks me through, holding my hand! Madras metropolis Is a splendid pot of hot food Catering to […]
Continue ReadingBruised, but not Broken (poems) -Challapalli Swarooparani 22. The Sacrifice A perennial sacrifice On the sacrifice pillar Who made This being stand thus? Frightened Just like me. Breathless The heart stifled I am startled By the bullet on my plate When I sit down to eat. Once again The Bhagavat Gita1chases me With a lathi […]
Continue ReadingBruised, but not Broken (poems) -Challapalli Swarooparani 21. Bruised Childhood Whenever I read of a pleasing pretty childhood Complete with teeny-weeny fluffy frocks Chubby cheeks My childhood ― A book of tables bereft of pages and Pressed down in an old trunk box ― Stretches out its leafy hands to be turned into poetry. If […]
Continue ReadingBruised, but not Broken (poems) -Challapalli Swarooparani 20. The Filthy My mother is an ogre She neither bathed me fondly Nor cajolingly fed me Neither stitched me a silk skirt Nor braided flowers in my hair. My mother Sun-burned, soot-faced With hands Eroded in the cleaning. When other mothers stealthily Gave their children pocket-money, For […]
Continue ReadingBruised, but not Broken (poems) -Challapalli Swarooparani 19. Wild Lily I am a piece of black flesh Formed into sculpture How could I have a heart when I am all flesh? In the mirrors of my inadequate blouse Hang reflections of Conspiracies, across time, which You have plotted against me. I know that The sound […]
Continue ReadingBruised, but not Broken (poems) -Challapalli Swarooparani 18. Child Sacs Leading a hand-to-mouth life The day before yesterday We sold our drudgery Yesterday we pawned the pitcher and winnowing pan. For a gulp of gruel we sold The blood in our body Our kidneys, for a handful of space We pawn our hearts every day. […]
Continue ReadingBruised, but not Broken (poems) -Challapalli Swarooparani 17. Black Mother While all sons became mother’s sons And all daughters, father’s daughters Just so to garland their fame with poetry, You never got any respect in life, Mother Only crowns of hardship. When I think of you, The stream of humiliation that you swam across Breaches […]
Continue ReadingBruised, but not Broken (poems) -Challapalli Swarooparani 16. Postponement of Love Love poetry! What do you mean, my writing it? My lips have been trembling for ages With the fear of death To even utter the syllables of love, How can I write poems on my love! Who after all acknowledged There beats a heart […]
Continue ReadingBruised, but not Broken (poems) -Challapalli Swarooparani 15. Step Mother My Hindu step mother! When you excommunicated my touch To a nowhere place, the trisanku heaven* Tied a muzzle to my mouth Hung a broom down my backend made A strange animal out of me I became an alien in my own land. With not […]
Continue ReadingBruised, but not Broken (poems) -Challapalli Swarooparani 14. The Black Sun Although he did not learn the alphabet He was a farmer who grew affection By churning life Although he did not know ideology and debate He was a true materialist who did not argue But made me write the alphabet with my left hand… […]
Continue ReadingBruised, but not Broken (poems) -Challapalli Swarooparani 13. Prohibited History Even as I took shape in My mother’s womb I was labelled untouchable Stamped low-caste Before I was born. The day I was born I bore the imprint of an unchaste woman Cast into the drainage of tradition The dustbin of custom. I became the […]
Continue ReadingBruised, but not Broken (poems) -Challapalli Swarooparani 12. Muddy Hands With the music of washed vessels. She wakes up the house. When the early cockcrows Piercing through thick darkness She lights the hut Feeds the children grains of rice. She arrives in the fields, porridge-vessel in hand The landlord welcomes her with abuses. As she […]
Continue ReadingBruised, but not Broken (poems) -Challapalli Swarooparani 11. New Syllabus The same age-old stale lessons In all the leaves of the same old book White sheets blacken from The soot that is in his mind. Children’s rhymes go thus Rama is a good boy Sita is a good wife Come on my daughter! Grind the […]
Continue ReadingBruised, but not Broken (poems) -Challapalli Swarooparani 10. Buffalo Nationalism A void at home The minds speak no words On the day when we sold Our pet buffalo A pet is not an animal But one of us, more than kith and kin We have no separate homes. She is my parents’ child, Along with […]
Continue ReadingBruised, but not Broken (poems) -Challapalli Swarooparani 9. Need to Speak My dumbness reveals No human is seen to speak It took a long time Even to speak to myself True interaction with a man Is possible only after Leaving all inhibitions. It is indeed For the union of true souls The interaction between you […]
Continue ReadingBruised, but not Broken (poems) -Challapalli Swarooparani 8. Morning Star Rising with the morning star Sweeping darkness away with a broom That girl draws patterns of brightness… As she washes dishes the sun rises from her beads of sweat. Amidst the chirping of birds. As she cleans everyone’s filth with her tender fingers That wonderful […]
Continue ReadingBruised, but not Broken (poems) -Challapalli Swarooparani 7. Mankena Flower Caught in bramble and thorn I am a struggling palapitta** Whichever way I move The thorns prick me These are not thorns of today But shackles of slavery That have bound me for generations. Caught between the devil and the deep sea Danger hisses about […]
Continue Reading
Bruised, but not Broken (poems) -Challapalli Swarooparani 6. Untouchable Assault This is ‘untouchable Sunitha’ speaking: From long ago ― Forgotten by you all In this country, just as there is ― untouchable hunger untouchable exploitation, untouchable suicides untouchable rape too exists. I swear by my love for Yogeswar Reddy That mine is certainly an Untouchable […]
Continue ReadingBruised, but not Broken (poems) -Challapalli Swarooparani 5. Explosion Though every cell craves for sanctity of a filled pot incessant blasts only embrace me. My only desire to live like a pure, new born person innocently like a faint green sprout ― the concrete diplomacy that piled up around freezes it by the day. To […]
Continue ReadingBruised, but not Broken (poems) -Challapalli Swarooparani 4. Prohibited Dream My memory does not carry Colourful dreams that converse with my eyelids. In my dream, someone chases me, Always, as I keep running Insecure And towards an unknown destiny. In fact, life too is like a dream! I bundle up my identity and toss it […]
Continue ReadingBruised, but not Broken (poems) -Challapalli Swarooparani 3. Water Just as water knows the ground’s incline, It knows the generations-old strife Between village and wada Like dampness on the well’s edge that never dries, It knows that untouchability never disappears. Water knows everything. It knows race The difference between the woman from Samaria and Jesus, […]
Continue ReadingBruised, but not Broken (poems) -Challapalli Swarooparani 2. An Ethnic Dream The criss-crossed entangled forest seemsTo have gathered its hair neatly into a knot.Swallowed by a corporate whaleThat spits them out in the centre of Shilparamam*Small huts in deep sleep amidst green treesAppear doll houses with lime patternsAlluring. Nose studs, beaded necklaces, mirror blouses ofThe […]
Continue ReadingBruised, but not Broken (poems) -Challapalli Swarooparani 1.Rain Rain means Memories – Flying termites That shed their wings from The wet anthills of the mind Rain means A paper boat that I fasten To plunge into the pond of infancy When I look at this rain I remember my damp thatched house That woke us […]
Continue ReadingBruised, but not Broken (poems) -Challapalli Swarooparani ‘ Memory as an Ideology ‘ Challapalli Swaroopa Rani uses memory not only as a technique but also as an ideology. Her selective memory carefully constructs the people and the milestones in her life and collates this personal memory with her memory of […]
Continue ReadingBruised, but not Broken (poems) -Challapalli Swarooparani ‘ THE PAIN OF BEING A PART APART ‘ This collection of 35 poems written by Prof Challapalli Swaroopa Rani now translated in to English, are eye-openers into the unspeakable experiences of Dalits not only in Andhra but all over India. These poems […]
Continue ReadingBruised, but not Broken (poems) -Challapalli Swarooparani My Word By and large the feminist movement in India has been about patriarchal oppression, experienced by dominant castes and middle class educated/urban women – gender discrimination: unequal man-woman relationships; undemocratic family system; burden of child-rearing and hardship of domestic chores as women […]
Continue Reading