Women are often forced to conform to unattainable standards and belittled if they choose to be independent. A renowned young woman and poet has a message for such body shaming in this short and powerful poem.
In a society that is obsessed with perfect skin, height, and weight, the definition of perfection looses its essence, with every neighborhood defining its own. Most often and unfortunately, Indian women are compared and forced to chase a certain look which challenges the traditional upbringing of pleasing every second person’s eyes.
This hard-hitting poem of Singapore- and Bangalore-based poet Nupur Saraswat walks us through a promenade of her life and the absurdities her surroundings gifted her with.
An ardent performance poet, Nupur was one of the finalists of Singapore’s National Poetry Slam 2015, and engaged by TEDx 2016 and UN Women Singapore for creative assignments. Her volatile words and performance method has been appraised by Javed Akhtar and Rahul Bose, both of whom she shared a stage with in 2016. Nupur is an environmental engineer, a writer, a recruitment consultant, and a spoken-word artist. She also runs her own brand of artist collective as ‘The Beasts of Bed and Battlefield’.
Like Nupur, for many Performance Poets, this medium helps turn their struggle with taboos and norms into personal revolutions. Young poets write and speak out about the unsettling traditions they see around them. Brothers speak out about their privilege over their sisters. Daughters talk about the kind of mothers they aim to become based on their own upbringing. They discuss things they would take with them, and the things they would like to leave behind.
By this simple act of voicing opinions, Nupur aims to turn her parents, relatives, and friends into her allies.
She believes that every word is a silent protest. This revolution is necessary to break free from tradition, and to escape our deprived institutions and misplaced stereotypes. It has also been a long time coming. She says that poetry is her weapon against body shaming, patriarchy, and the complicity we assume in gender roles. ‘Twisted and Mine’ is one such powerful narration.
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