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| Toolika Rani |
Outsiders
She sat there,
Confident, short
haired
Expounding the feeling
of alienation
Tightening its noose
around her
In her very own
nation,
A deepening indentation
Slashing against her
conscience
A mark of violent
question on the collective identity
Of generations and
generations.
She resents the loss
of reason
Laments the mindless
doling out
Of Certificates of
Treason.
How's it there in that
far away region
Reside where you in a
comparative seclusion
From the maddening
voices of faith and religion?
Would I be able to
research on some people
A miniscule body, not
the central figure
In the dominant
narrative of civilisation?
Yes, you will have to
present the relevance with conviction.
And you yourself may
become for them
An exotic piece of
fiction.
A brown girl of a
descent Asian.
An Everest climb
having been done
A symbol of
emancipation.
How wonderful to have
a discussion
To end the
intellectual starvation!
For the first time I
am considering moving out as an option.
Escaping the fanatic
frenzy,
Having freedom to work
is better
As now I realise the
certain
Inescapability
Of being an alien
forever.
She got up suddenly to
shake hands with me-
"From one to
another".
Toolika Rani is an ex-Indian Air Force Officer, Mountaineer (Everest Climber), International Motivational Speaker (twice TEDx), Author, Poet, Assistant Professor of History, and was also the G-20 Brand Ambassador of Higher Education Department, U.P. Government (2023). Her books include Beyond That Wall: Redemption on Everest, Sherpas of Solukhumbu: History and Evolution, two collections of Hindi poems titled, Dayron ke Bahar and Hasratein, and three English poetry books titled, The Song of the Sky, A Wild Flower and Thus Sang the Bluebirds. She has edited an International Anthology of poems on Himalaya, titled, The Mountain was Abuzz, which was displayed at the Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival 2024. Email: tulich83@gmail.com
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