To Be or not to Be a Cockroach
I’m proud of you.
There is a fucking circus out there.
A palm fighting a broom,
a broom fighting a lotus,
a lotus now opposed by a cockroach.
It is pretty.
It is enticing.
It is designed for you to pick a side.
Maybe the cockroach against the lotus.
But where are you in its manifesto?
Maybe the broom against the lotus.
But it never gave a fuck about you.
Maybe the palm against the lotus.
But it had decades,
and changed nothing fundamental.
And no,
I know you are not stupid enough
to pick the lotus against all of them.
But the damage is done.
The lotus has created a new normal.
All the ground we fought for,
tooth and nail,
for seventy-five years,
has been pushed back.
Now no matter who comes to power,
we will have to begin again.
We will have to raise our voices again.
Reclaim space again.
Demand dignity again.
Remind them again
that we exist.
But remember this:
No matter how far they push us back,
we never start from zero.
We stand on the shoulders of giants.
We are Ambedkar.
We are Phule.
We are Kanshi Ram.
We are every unnamed person
who fought so we could speak.
They will never get rid of us.
They will never erase us.
We are everywhere.
The fight has become harder.
So have we.
No matter who you are,
lotus, palm, broom, cockroach,
or whatever symbol comes next,
we are arriving.