“She gives that there may be life,thought,transformation ” – Helene Cixous
As a part of the series of writings generously and painstakingly submitted to our call for writings to celebrate 70 years of independence, we are delighted to present writings by women, particularly here by Mehk Chakraborty.
Urban Projections
written by: Mehk
the City is blinding;
the City chokes and poisons our mind;
the essence;
our being.
We never really break out of its spell;
it consumes us in its entirety of vision
– we are spellbound and pleasurably
deluded in its assertions.
No matter what
the City’s all pervasive
presence
or
strengthened, incredulous position
may come to represent,
the City,
perhaps in nonchalant passivity,
stands as an egoistic manifestation,
without a basis in the purity of truth/reality
– without love except as a cocoon soon to be broken away from if we are to pursue
the project of Truth.
A sky filled with the unreal
– the City is the harbinger of All-
standing the age of development.
The day I wake up and see with my own eyes,
it is my self,
tying the Self
in chains of hate
for the City.
The attempt at searching,
seeking out and actively pursuing this realisation
of
the most abstract human evolution has driven me to this
– the futility for hatred for what is because of hopes for what should be
is the fabric upon which
Understanding gets lost.
The City is my muse,
and I,
its lover
who cannot break
myself
away from it.
The City/my love,
has given me all,
and true love does not seek to possess or judge
– it can only hope to uplift, appreciate and create a union to higher knowledge.
About Mehk Chakraborty
At 22 she is a poetry lover. dreamer. yogini. cosmic voyager . artist. writer. journalist.
Read more @verslunivers.wordpress.com
A note on Urban Body : entrapments & releases
70 years after freedom, India is clearly an important part of the global development paradigm. The trajectory is gradually but surely moving, tending towards an universalized architecture of urbanity. Yet pathways to future seems to be determined but not self -determined. The position of liberties which freedom offers are constantly evolving through a continuous discourse amongst diverse forces.
The urban spaces meanwhile are mangled, chaotic, polluted, dystopian – much an result of sudden influxes and accidental growth rather than of planned development – merely factories and supermarkets of bodies in motion – plugged effectively to a matrix which is centralized and oriented towards productivity.
Urbanity – symbolic of progress is also the colonization of the body, mind & soul. It is the desecration of the soul, deconstruction of the body and remolding of culture. 70 years after independence the urban body is entrapped, colonized, by powers which are invisible yet more efficient.
Hence we look at writings which examines this entrapment and the quest for release – to liberate. Writings which helps us to negotiate, envision and determine – to love , to live and progress as individuals & as a collective, in and from – this urban dystopia.
Image courtesy Sudipta Dawn
This project is supported by Iris Home Fragrance.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Culture Monks 