LOVE IN THE TIMES OF RESISTANCE
Loving you was never easy
I could see thousands of them standing before you, between us
But every midnight, I dreamt about you
You being with me, in me
I could still feel you in my veins
I’m waiting
Waiting for the world to turn red
Waiting for the wave of passion and consciousness
To penetrate into the factories of lust
I am waiting for the unison
Loving you was never easy
It takes heart to see your own blood
Flowing out from the veins where you reside
Perhaps, I wanted to set you free, flow out
So that you could see how much I’ve starved for you
How much I have craved for you, longed for you
I am waiting for your arrival
Loving you was never easy
You were destroying me, leaving me gasping
But I wanted all of it, wanted you to see all of it
The way I was unmaking and remaking myself
To become this stronger self
Whose empathy, love and resistance knows no boundaries
All the nights I’ve survived without you
You ought to give it back
I can’t wait for our victory
Loving you was never easy
The owners, landlords and bankers dehumanized me
Degraded me to the minimum value of my physical labour
Forced to weed money like religion
Suppressed all my possible emotions but pain and sorrow
Broke my spine with the weight of work and misery unknown
But still, they couldn’t shake my love for you
Now that I’ve confessed that
You ought to put an end to my waiting
Together we will fill each other’s voids, ease each other’s pain
Overthrow and demolish these villain structures
Which has kept us, and my like us apart all these ages
We will break the shackles of bondages
We will fracture the institution of profit
We will overthrow the crowns of oppressive system
Now that you’ve come, finally
Let’s spread our love
And paint the world, RED
by Anjali Chauhan
Anjali Chauhan is currently pursuing a PhD from the Department of Political Science, University of Delhi. She is UGC NET qualified in Political Science and was recently awarded ICSSR Centrally Administered Full Term Doctoral Fellowship. Her specialization is in Feminist Political Economy and her research concerns analyzing the impact of Neoliberal Development backed Women Empowerment on the women working in garment factories.
For the last 2+ years, her writings around Women, Labour and State Politics have been making spaces in acclaimed websites and magazines such as Outlook, Frontline, Quint, Forward Press, Kootniti, Diplomatist, Feminism In India, etc. Her upcoming piece will appear in the journal Gender and Development, titled 'Kiruba Munusamy sending shockwaves in a casteist-patriarchal society' which will be published by Routledge. She has also gained the merit of a few certificate courses such as Feminism and Social Justice (University of California), Gender and Society (University of Delhi), Writing and Editing (University of Michigan) and Creative Writing (British Council).
Links to some of her work:
https://www.newsclick.in/how-can-minds-heal-where-bodies-are-denied-justice
https://thekootneeti.in/2022/03/10/the-world-needs-empaths-not-tyrants/