Pushkar Diaries 5

In the land of dust, I heard the plight of an Indian woman. Sung by the wife to a god, in brandishing classical ragas that stirred something within, a déjà vu, of a knot-like feeling I had to digest while I read the ‘second sex’.

The song goes on to narrate Rukmini’s marriage to Krishna as she parts in her Doli, on her journey to his palatial house. She exclaims, ‘to be sold to another man, without dowry is worse than to be sold in the first place. My abilities have been mentioned with clarity to my new keepers, and only those that would profit my master have been cultivated. Everything that he may not like will be me. In my tears, I will understand the reason for such slavery and maybe in rejection, I may find myself.”