Ever wonder how I came to be thus?

Dig deep into my childhood

Answers you may find thus

Being bullied is never good

More so, if it is because you are different

Being chased with sticks around a park and occasionally beaten

Just because playing cricket with yourself was not a fad then

On my psyche it left a huge dent

Before the bullying was the episode of Swami Vivekananda School

Where I was happy to last a mere week

Mocked for being a South Indian, different and meek

To Bambino Pre-school children as well, I was not ‘cool’

The last straw was being called ‘spastic’ in 8th standard

In an ICSE school with an eminently high standards

From then, I was always for the oppressed

Their voices being silenced left me depressed

Parents should never encourage bullying

Bullies as individuals, become mobs as a crowd

Bullying gets transformed into lynching

Another low blow for a patriarchal society ever loud

A sexist society that thrives on sensation

A martyr’s daughter calls out for peace

Receives rape threats from so-called protectors of the nation

Will hatred-fuelled nationalism ever cease?

A country ruled by a party that doesn’t respect minorities

A party whose spokesperson blames liberals for a terror attack

We liberals, standing up for those suffering in all calamities

Yet being questioned and mocked, upfront and behind our backs

Distant relatives with very different views add to the burden

As having to deal with Asperger’s Syndrome

You have to be a Roman in Rome

Even if Rome is not fair to all men and women