from the goddess born out of another’s
anger to the woman who defied physical
stereotypes and exuded power from the
goddess who had to marry five men to the
woman who chose whom she would love from
the goddess was abandoned by another man
to the transsexual who chose his
identity the stories I grew up with grew
up with me the world we perceive as it
is today is the result of a synthesis of
stories with yours and others a network
of interconnections quite like routes
that bring into the being everything it
requires quietly lying beneath away from
plain sight with the unmistakable base
upon which the tree reality is built
stories are diverse vivid manifold
stories can be complex its possibility
for multiple perceptions like the
different interlinked pathways of a big
labyrinth a part of its very existence
but sometimes stories can be really
simple it’s like a single thread of
cloth easy at first sight but with the
unmistakable capacity to disentangle
itself of million times the philosophies
we imbibe from stories are different
stories are manifestations of
experiences and experiences are
immeasurable our stories vary and mine
is a really simple one it’s a story of
stories and conversations now very
personal decision I took months back
opened me up to a very curious
characteristic feature of the society
you see the society works with the
stencil in hand a stencil is I quote a
thin sheet of cardboard metal or plastic
with different shapes cut out of it and
when placed on another surface and
poured ink into helps reproduce the same
shape on the surface below now the
momentous decision I took was to cut my
hip long hair really short that coupled
with a pair of new glasses managed to
traumatize a couple of my distant
relatives the pee
of the indian family who actually care
about you the most I was bombarded with
looks and an array of quite audible
sounds in their eyes I saw disgust
anxiety but most importantly the fear of
a broken norm now wading through are you
trying to be like a boy or what have you
done to your long hair I reach the
question that disturbed me and
interested me the most now this question
was a compartmentalization and a
comparison at the same time I was asked
by people belonging to different age
groups genders and backgrounds now are
you trying to be a feminist
this is conversation one I was shocked
and surprised I am a feminist since the
day I knew who that was what I believed
in was called I have been but I fail to
understand how the way I looked helped
them determine this I was shocked
because you see I was a feminist even
when I had long hair now the flappers of
the 1920s change their physical
appearances radically extremely short
hair flamboyant colors replacement of
corsets with lingerie to fight against
the airtight Victorian model of morals
of the society and that was relevant to
the condition then but in the 21st
century I found myself having to
furiously narrate how my hairstyle was
irrelevant as far as my feminism was
concerned you should replace your
glasses with lens because with glasses
you look like every other feminist my
cousin told me that was baffled at how
my external appearance was easily
helping them to categorize me into
something now the stencil takes all life
all phenomena and their entire existence
–is and liquefies them and paws it into
its different shapes and all spillages
are painstakingly removed and i with my
short hair and glasses was supposed to
fit into the stencil of the feminist of
the 21st century because no one is to be
an exception to the stencil now there is
only one stencil there will always be
only one stencil and this is large
enough and wide enough to des
at all differences anything left
undefined by the society is dangerous to
its power so definition started to rule
the game and because definition helped
in drawing a curtain against anything
that refused to be defined definition
made it easier to make us look like
mass-produced goods identical mechanical
lifeless I grew up listening to stories
all my life I still do the stories of
the ancient epics was so fascinating so
colorful the characters coming to life
in front of me the shadows growing in
shapes and sizes in the dark bedroom
when my mother used different
intonations for theatrical effect the
gods and God has fascinated me the wars
disturbed and angered me like it still
does and the richness blew my mind but
after some time I noticed that stories
grow up to in this world of social
racial and sexual discrimination in this
world of political power play the epics
were being more relevant to me than it
ever had it opened up like a new person
it was more real than the real presented
to me look these characters were in
shallow these characters refused to be
defined
I wondered aloud at the wife of the
story who had to prove her chastity but
the husband who didn’t have to the
villain of the story was above all cast
discriminations but the hero who is
still confined and controlled by it
the powerful female characters who
refused to be covered by flimsy covers
of socially created fake masculinity
thrown over them stories are much more
than powerful stories help you break
definitions and if you let them if you
let them stories will teach you to ask
questions stories will show you the
fallacy of trying to fit this world
forcefully into shapes sizes and
categories we don’t quite understand
stories tell you that the fiction
present to you is ultimately drawn from
our own realities
literature classes are worlds of stories
we see the same world through different
eyes in there and this is conversation
to good
I believe every man accused of rape
where it is not the woman’s fault has to
be hand ungood the whole class froze
into silence and we argued with the
teacher for one whole hour an
eight-year-old child an 80 year old
woman a poor refugee man women in salvos
women in burkas kids swaddled in clothes
man in tattered shorts in temples in
moving buses and trains and here we are
still arguing with the teacher who was
ready to fight for the cause if it was
not the fault of the person at the
receiving end if what you did war and
said did nothing to incite the urges of
the man standing on the other side the
only male students in my class winced
but did not say anything as conversation
3 happened could all men ultimately see
women as mere sexual objects only ungood
14 women argued with the teacher that
day for another hour
the teacher was shell-shocked wait these
are 14 women they say they’re feminists
but aren’t feminists supposed to hate
men again I was asked not to use a word
as strong as rape leading to
conversation for coat let’s not he was a
word as strong as that in class shall we
ungood said the calm smiling voice of
the professor as he easily went back
into teaching post structuralism leaving
me hanging
dangerously in a world of conflicts the
National Crime Records Bureau in 2016
calculated thirty eight thousand nine
hundred and forty seven rapes that here
that’s for women an hour two point four
to three point six million children
pushed into the vicious cycle of sexual
slavery every year having to go through
tortures nobody must have to go through
ever in their lives and here we were
still being uncomfortable by the reality
that slap
in the face every day the conversations
I was having was taking me to a world
characterized by shame always imposed on
the person at the receiving end shameful
it is to be raped to be passed leave
comments on to be harassed at your
workplace to be ridiculed for the way
your body is shameful it is to talk
about sex shameful it is to point out
the sexism in your friends joke in the
21st century received with a scrunched
up nose and a wrinkled forehead shameful
it is to be a feminist shame has more
power than we give it credit shame has
the ability to reduce us to the dregs of
the society scorn if the society rules
and is ruled by the stencil then shame
controls that stencil shame ensures that
you are aware of its presence shame
keeps you intimidated so that you
automatically assume it is safer to fit
in to what has already been made for you
rather than risk being shamed shame has
different dimensions if it’s not what
you say it’s the way you look I have
never been born shamed in my entire life
not even once
never Lord for the way I look never
known what is not like myself because I
look a certain way
this is conversation five quote
sometimes I feel so bad about myself and
it affects the way I see myself on the
outside it’s just physical appearance
after all but it affects people well
then I can tell you ungood that was my
best friend who confessed to me she was
made to feel worthless and invisible at
a point in her life where she was made
so conscious about her weight that she’s
afraid of she would find self-love
statistics say that 94 percentage of
women and 64 percentage of men also in
the teen age suffer from body shaming
more than once in their lives pushing
them to eating disorders like anorexia
nervosa bulimia nervosa killing their
health and their confidence there is an
issue with some problems we don’t
understand them unless we go through it
ourselves
Shaymin is one such
but here my lack of empathy would equate
to lying an opaque sheet or the
experiences of everybody who isn’t me
and by doing that and choosing to forget
something really really important I’m
not invincible to any of this our
advertisements do a really good job at
reinforcing this and it’s not just the
size of your body fairer skin equates to
greater confidence fitter body equates
to create a public space and in this
world my glasses determine my feminism
so every time a person reaches over for
a fairness cream or chooses to eat an
apple or a healthy meal the stencil
gains strength and starts to suffocate
the misfit gender inequality has been
ingrained into our lives since time
immemorial little girls are taught to
play wife play with kitchen utensils by
little boys are taught to sweat little
girls can cry their eyes out but little
boys are chastised for crying like a
girl
general sensitivity has been a theme for
jokes since forever
and every time we silently agree to this
we are normalizing that which isn’t a
norm so what can be done firstly kill
the societies humor sense the next time
you go on Facebook you see the photo of
a dark plum lady with curly hair with a
description that says tag your lucky
friend who would want to marry this
beautiful lady question yourself before
you were about to tag someone the next
time you receive the lame watsapp joke
about the poor husband who has to suffer
under the plight of the unbearable wife
all the time
question why this is funny the next time
the macho man hero asks the girl jump
into his Jeep so that she can be at the
receiving end of his drunken loiters at
the end of a long hard day so that she
can cook for him cry for him and bear
litters of children for him question the
thrill of heroism that you might feel
question the story that created
characters like this and question the
message that films like these silently
spread also question
the individual who tells you that films
are mere entertainment and then goes on
to watch art films to talk about the
socio-cultural importance of cinema at
the same time if you still think it’s
okay for rape references and jokes to be
made if you still think it’s okay for
the policeman to grab his female
colleague by his belt and if you still
think that is heroic question yourself
before you question the person who asked
you to strangle the human sense by its
neck secondly we need to go to
conversation six code I’m an equalist
I’m a humanist I can’t essentially be a
feminist unquote not one not two but so
many people have chosen to confidently
say this and I wondered if they don’t do
that these terms are in fact related to
each other why is it so hard to
understand what feminism is why feminism
to change the way the society perceives
an individual’s strength based on their
gender to make sure that discussions do
not limit themselves to discussing
gender in two categories the
hypocritical concept of threa that is
established by the stencil to make the
world a more humane place to live in
equality and humanity are the ultimate
results that feminism seeks to pursue so
the next time you hear someone saying
I’m an equalist I’m a humanist I can’t
essentially be a feminist remind them
that he might just be a feminist what a
disappointment
do you know why we need to break the
stencil because we need to go to
conversation 7 I was told by my friend a
couple of months back coat so what is so
wrong in being the person at the
receiving end I mean what is so wrong in
being controlled unquote and to
everybody who has thought about this
silently or aloud I tell you because I
refuse
I refuse to be defined by the
characteristic features assigned to me
because of my gender I refuse to see
this world in black and whites when the
sky can turn blue orange pink black
I refuse to judge the wonderful men
around me I refuse to see the discussion
falling from feminism to feminism which
is just an excuse to mute the real
conversation most importantly I refuse
to obey the order of the stencil to
remain without spilling do you know why
I’m a feminist because I see the stencil
breaking dreams clipping wings taking
lights
I see the stencil seeing the world
through differences in terms of gender
and similarities in terms of existence
I’m a FEMINIST because I want to break
the stencil in to let the ink flow out
take whatever shape it desires to take I
had hip long hair I wore no glasses I
was a feminist then I have really short
hair now I wear glasses I’m a FEMINIST
now I might shave my hair I might grow
it out of my knees I might go blind or I
might end up wearing lens I’m still
going to be a feminist this is my story
story of stories and conversations a
simple story
a single thread thank you [Applause]
anger to the woman who defied physical
stereotypes and exuded power from the
goddess who had to marry five men to the
woman who chose whom she would love from
the goddess was abandoned by another man
to the transsexual who chose his
identity the stories I grew up with grew
up with me the world we perceive as it
is today is the result of a synthesis of
stories with yours and others a network
of interconnections quite like routes
that bring into the being everything it
requires quietly lying beneath away from
plain sight with the unmistakable base
upon which the tree reality is built
stories are diverse vivid manifold
stories can be complex its possibility
for multiple perceptions like the
different interlinked pathways of a big
labyrinth a part of its very existence
but sometimes stories can be really
simple it’s like a single thread of
cloth easy at first sight but with the
unmistakable capacity to disentangle
itself of million times the philosophies
we imbibe from stories are different
stories are manifestations of
experiences and experiences are
immeasurable our stories vary and mine
is a really simple one it’s a story of
stories and conversations now very
personal decision I took months back
opened me up to a very curious
characteristic feature of the society
you see the society works with the
stencil in hand a stencil is I quote a
thin sheet of cardboard metal or plastic
with different shapes cut out of it and
when placed on another surface and
poured ink into helps reproduce the same
shape on the surface below now the
momentous decision I took was to cut my
hip long hair really short that coupled
with a pair of new glasses managed to
traumatize a couple of my distant
relatives the pee
of the indian family who actually care
about you the most I was bombarded with
looks and an array of quite audible
sounds in their eyes I saw disgust
anxiety but most importantly the fear of
a broken norm now wading through are you
trying to be like a boy or what have you
done to your long hair I reach the
question that disturbed me and
interested me the most now this question
was a compartmentalization and a
comparison at the same time I was asked
by people belonging to different age
groups genders and backgrounds now are
you trying to be a feminist
this is conversation one I was shocked
and surprised I am a feminist since the
day I knew who that was what I believed
in was called I have been but I fail to
understand how the way I looked helped
them determine this I was shocked
because you see I was a feminist even
when I had long hair now the flappers of
the 1920s change their physical
appearances radically extremely short
hair flamboyant colors replacement of
corsets with lingerie to fight against
the airtight Victorian model of morals
of the society and that was relevant to
the condition then but in the 21st
century I found myself having to
furiously narrate how my hairstyle was
irrelevant as far as my feminism was
concerned you should replace your
glasses with lens because with glasses
you look like every other feminist my
cousin told me that was baffled at how
my external appearance was easily
helping them to categorize me into
something now the stencil takes all life
all phenomena and their entire existence
–is and liquefies them and paws it into
its different shapes and all spillages
are painstakingly removed and i with my
short hair and glasses was supposed to
fit into the stencil of the feminist of
the 21st century because no one is to be
an exception to the stencil now there is
only one stencil there will always be
only one stencil and this is large
enough and wide enough to des
at all differences anything left
undefined by the society is dangerous to
its power so definition started to rule
the game and because definition helped
in drawing a curtain against anything
that refused to be defined definition
made it easier to make us look like
mass-produced goods identical mechanical
lifeless I grew up listening to stories
all my life I still do the stories of
the ancient epics was so fascinating so
colorful the characters coming to life
in front of me the shadows growing in
shapes and sizes in the dark bedroom
when my mother used different
intonations for theatrical effect the
gods and God has fascinated me the wars
disturbed and angered me like it still
does and the richness blew my mind but
after some time I noticed that stories
grow up to in this world of social
racial and sexual discrimination in this
world of political power play the epics
were being more relevant to me than it
ever had it opened up like a new person
it was more real than the real presented
to me look these characters were in
shallow these characters refused to be
defined
I wondered aloud at the wife of the
story who had to prove her chastity but
the husband who didn’t have to the
villain of the story was above all cast
discriminations but the hero who is
still confined and controlled by it
the powerful female characters who
refused to be covered by flimsy covers
of socially created fake masculinity
thrown over them stories are much more
than powerful stories help you break
definitions and if you let them if you
let them stories will teach you to ask
questions stories will show you the
fallacy of trying to fit this world
forcefully into shapes sizes and
categories we don’t quite understand
stories tell you that the fiction
present to you is ultimately drawn from
our own realities
literature classes are worlds of stories
we see the same world through different
eyes in there and this is conversation
to good
I believe every man accused of rape
where it is not the woman’s fault has to
be hand ungood the whole class froze
into silence and we argued with the
teacher for one whole hour an
eight-year-old child an 80 year old
woman a poor refugee man women in salvos
women in burkas kids swaddled in clothes
man in tattered shorts in temples in
moving buses and trains and here we are
still arguing with the teacher who was
ready to fight for the cause if it was
not the fault of the person at the
receiving end if what you did war and
said did nothing to incite the urges of
the man standing on the other side the
only male students in my class winced
but did not say anything as conversation
3 happened could all men ultimately see
women as mere sexual objects only ungood
14 women argued with the teacher that
day for another hour
the teacher was shell-shocked wait these
are 14 women they say they’re feminists
but aren’t feminists supposed to hate
men again I was asked not to use a word
as strong as rape leading to
conversation for coat let’s not he was a
word as strong as that in class shall we
ungood said the calm smiling voice of
the professor as he easily went back
into teaching post structuralism leaving
me hanging
dangerously in a world of conflicts the
National Crime Records Bureau in 2016
calculated thirty eight thousand nine
hundred and forty seven rapes that here
that’s for women an hour two point four
to three point six million children
pushed into the vicious cycle of sexual
slavery every year having to go through
tortures nobody must have to go through
ever in their lives and here we were
still being uncomfortable by the reality
that slap
in the face every day the conversations
I was having was taking me to a world
characterized by shame always imposed on
the person at the receiving end shameful
it is to be raped to be passed leave
comments on to be harassed at your
workplace to be ridiculed for the way
your body is shameful it is to talk
about sex shameful it is to point out
the sexism in your friends joke in the
21st century received with a scrunched
up nose and a wrinkled forehead shameful
it is to be a feminist shame has more
power than we give it credit shame has
the ability to reduce us to the dregs of
the society scorn if the society rules
and is ruled by the stencil then shame
controls that stencil shame ensures that
you are aware of its presence shame
keeps you intimidated so that you
automatically assume it is safer to fit
in to what has already been made for you
rather than risk being shamed shame has
different dimensions if it’s not what
you say it’s the way you look I have
never been born shamed in my entire life
not even once
never Lord for the way I look never
known what is not like myself because I
look a certain way
this is conversation five quote
sometimes I feel so bad about myself and
it affects the way I see myself on the
outside it’s just physical appearance
after all but it affects people well
then I can tell you ungood that was my
best friend who confessed to me she was
made to feel worthless and invisible at
a point in her life where she was made
so conscious about her weight that she’s
afraid of she would find self-love
statistics say that 94 percentage of
women and 64 percentage of men also in
the teen age suffer from body shaming
more than once in their lives pushing
them to eating disorders like anorexia
nervosa bulimia nervosa killing their
health and their confidence there is an
issue with some problems we don’t
understand them unless we go through it
ourselves
Shaymin is one such
but here my lack of empathy would equate
to lying an opaque sheet or the
experiences of everybody who isn’t me
and by doing that and choosing to forget
something really really important I’m
not invincible to any of this our
advertisements do a really good job at
reinforcing this and it’s not just the
size of your body fairer skin equates to
greater confidence fitter body equates
to create a public space and in this
world my glasses determine my feminism
so every time a person reaches over for
a fairness cream or chooses to eat an
apple or a healthy meal the stencil
gains strength and starts to suffocate
the misfit gender inequality has been
ingrained into our lives since time
immemorial little girls are taught to
play wife play with kitchen utensils by
little boys are taught to sweat little
girls can cry their eyes out but little
boys are chastised for crying like a
girl
general sensitivity has been a theme for
jokes since forever
and every time we silently agree to this
we are normalizing that which isn’t a
norm so what can be done firstly kill
the societies humor sense the next time
you go on Facebook you see the photo of
a dark plum lady with curly hair with a
description that says tag your lucky
friend who would want to marry this
beautiful lady question yourself before
you were about to tag someone the next
time you receive the lame watsapp joke
about the poor husband who has to suffer
under the plight of the unbearable wife
all the time
question why this is funny the next time
the macho man hero asks the girl jump
into his Jeep so that she can be at the
receiving end of his drunken loiters at
the end of a long hard day so that she
can cook for him cry for him and bear
litters of children for him question the
thrill of heroism that you might feel
question the story that created
characters like this and question the
message that films like these silently
spread also question
the individual who tells you that films
are mere entertainment and then goes on
to watch art films to talk about the
socio-cultural importance of cinema at
the same time if you still think it’s
okay for rape references and jokes to be
made if you still think it’s okay for
the policeman to grab his female
colleague by his belt and if you still
think that is heroic question yourself
before you question the person who asked
you to strangle the human sense by its
neck secondly we need to go to
conversation six code I’m an equalist
I’m a humanist I can’t essentially be a
feminist unquote not one not two but so
many people have chosen to confidently
say this and I wondered if they don’t do
that these terms are in fact related to
each other why is it so hard to
understand what feminism is why feminism
to change the way the society perceives
an individual’s strength based on their
gender to make sure that discussions do
not limit themselves to discussing
gender in two categories the
hypocritical concept of threa that is
established by the stencil to make the
world a more humane place to live in
equality and humanity are the ultimate
results that feminism seeks to pursue so
the next time you hear someone saying
I’m an equalist I’m a humanist I can’t
essentially be a feminist remind them
that he might just be a feminist what a
disappointment
do you know why we need to break the
stencil because we need to go to
conversation 7 I was told by my friend a
couple of months back coat so what is so
wrong in being the person at the
receiving end I mean what is so wrong in
being controlled unquote and to
everybody who has thought about this
silently or aloud I tell you because I
refuse
I refuse to be defined by the
characteristic features assigned to me
because of my gender I refuse to see
this world in black and whites when the
sky can turn blue orange pink black
I refuse to judge the wonderful men
around me I refuse to see the discussion
falling from feminism to feminism which
is just an excuse to mute the real
conversation most importantly I refuse
to obey the order of the stencil to
remain without spilling do you know why
I’m a feminist because I see the stencil
breaking dreams clipping wings taking
lights
I see the stencil seeing the world
through differences in terms of gender
and similarities in terms of existence
I’m a FEMINIST because I want to break
the stencil in to let the ink flow out
take whatever shape it desires to take I
had hip long hair I wore no glasses I
was a feminist then I have really short
hair now I wear glasses I’m a FEMINIST
now I might shave my hair I might grow
it out of my knees I might go blind or I
might end up wearing lens I’m still
going to be a feminist this is my story
story of stories and conversations a
simple story
a single thread thank you [Applause]
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