“I, will, firstly, strip myself of clothes and ornaments. Then I intend to peel off this light brown skin and shatter my bones.
At last, I hope you will be able to see my homeless, orphan, intensely beautiful soul, deep within the bone, deep down under, beneath even the marrow, in a fourth dimension.”
– Kamala Das, excerpts from the translation of her autobiography in Malayalam,
Ente Katha
I am unveiled. The piece of cloth I used to cover my face, is lost somewhere. I lost it. Somewhere in the crowd, among the masked people. Today I am standing here, unveiled. My face is uncovered.
When I lost that cloth, I became scared. What if, my face is revealed to everyone? What if, the boy afar could see my lips? What if, the man beside me could see my eyes? What if, I come across my own reflection, in the glass window of any shop?
For decades, I have not seen myself in the mirror. I forgot how was my face, how I looked, once. Decades ago.
Today, I stand unveiled. For I have nothing to hide. From you, from the world. My story is being written since years, perhaps, before my birth. But still, I have a thousand year old one, sleeping inside my heart, covered with hundreds of lies.
You think you can see me? You can see all of me?
Yes, you see my face. Smiling, sometimes, uttering the beauty around with her lips.
But I see my soul, lying here, all alone in the darkness. I see some places in me, isolated from others, homeless, staring at me like an orphan. I find some untold stories of me, there. I call them, scars. I find my glory in them, for I see the light entering in my soul through the pain. I am proud of them, for they sing the echo of my wounds. I know, they are mine. My lips, my eyes. My perfections, my imperfections. My scars, my beauty, my defeats, my victory. All mine. Mine alone.
I am unveiled, but at deepest of my soul, a part of me is still waiting to lift its veil. One time, and then, hundred times over.
[I am taking my blog to the next level with Blogchatter’s #MyFriendAlexa 2019]
Read my all posts of this month long event here.]
Read short story ‘Liberation’ here.
The Blissful Storyteller 
11 responses to “Unveiled”
First of all I read Kamala Das after a long long time. At a point of time her poetry really influenced me. So thanks for bringing her here Swarnali.
Now about the scribble Unveiled. Yes you are right. While so much of us is unveiled, particularly at this point that we may have reached in our lives there will always be some places hard to venture into, by anyone. So, unveiled yet veiled. And those who claim to know us so well…Well…They never know!
Did I get you right??
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Absolutely, Sonia! Once upon a time, I was the princess of my father. I was beautiful, a fair skinned chubby girl, with lots of self confidence, and beautiful dreams in eyes. Eventually, I embraced failures, I had scars, wounds in my heart, now, I have become a warrior. Now, I consider my scars as my real beauty, because they show that I have survived, anyway. And I am still fighting. When the world thinks my scars are unveiled, I still have a place deep inside me, veiled. Even I have to explore myself, a thousand times, to reach that point. That’s why we are unveiled to the world, so what?? We have to lift the veil of the soul, yet.
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❤️❤️👌
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I love to read Kamala Das, too. Her writing has a fierce flavour, whenever she writes she writes it fiercely, without bearing any kind of fear in heart. I really like this. That’s why whenever I feel low, I read her words. They are so bold, so courageous!
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This is so bold, ferocious and outgoing. Loved every word of it 🙂
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Thank you so much!! Glad you could relate with it. This means a lot to me. 🙂
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I’m not a lot into books or reading but these lines say a lot about real-life situations. Deep and thoughtful makes one think about existence and karma 🙂
#MyFriendAlexa #vigorousreads
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Glad to know that you liked it 🙂
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I’ve read Kamla Das after a really long time! Her poetry used to be featured in Femina, I remember. Your piece is very powerful. Being unveiled, while still a part of us always remains veiled – very evocative image, and very real!
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Yes absolutely, we all have a part of us still unveiled 🙂 I love to read Kamala Das..she is fierce..
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[…] since my school days, a movie character named Aisha Banerjee from Wake Up Sid. After that, I wrote, ‘Unveiled’, a short piece unveiling my heart’s deepest corner. I wrote a letter to a lost love, through the […]
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