PHOTOGRAPHY
24 Hours In Pictures
LESS THAN A HUMAN
‘Less than a human’ is a horror-suspense narrative through photographs which turns out to be subversive commentary on the position and treatment of women in India. It urges the society to question the ethics of mankind. The story is unfolded in first person by the woman, the lead who is a newly wed bride. As every blushing bride dreams of a husband who loves her, our protagonist too dreams the same which turns into a horrifying wind up. It is a paradox between love and horror where a bond which emerges from a vessel and gets submerged in the same vessel. A woman’s fear, suffocation, lack of safety and constant degradation gets transposed to the man. All of their own doing; disrespect for women after all, can only beget disrespect. The title ‘less than a human’ is a question which the narrator asks the society to give their opinion on who is lesser as a human, the narrator or the man?
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"That day your love had made me sure that I was ready to forsake this worldly life and surrender to the magnificence of your being.You won that day, I let you win to see and live this new world through your eyes and honor and respect.
From arranging my doll’s dressing table to laying out my own table, it marked a fresh start to a new life and celebrating marriage of flesh and air. The color of my sky began to match with the shades of his ashtray. Monsters are not real; my mother used to say. Maa was wrong until I realised that they come out every night and ask me to play. I was not scared, maybe I should have been?
There was a demon in my house most probably under my bed or behind the curtains. He unveiled his mask. I was afraid to look in the mirror. My heart started to crave once again for those moments of peace.
There was a demon in my house most probably under my bed or behind the curtains. He unveiled his mask. I was afraid to look in the mirror. My heart started to crave once again for those moments of peace.
His shirt smelled of other women and his ring reflected his sins.
My body felt like a rented house.
My lungs were fighting for air, I was burning but I did not die.
When did I realise I need help? When dying felt easier than living. I helped myself. I decided to put back the knife in the kitchen. The blood was drying up. My hands were a bit bloody.
Yes,
In the scorching heat of the day, I committed a sin, Was I a sinner too?
Yes,
In the scorching heat of the day, I committed a sin, Was I a sinner too?
I did not like the ending you had decided for us and I mended it my way. You were not my homeland anymore. That moment I realised that love was just a temporary dare of god.
Why should the law punish you when you wronged me? After all I was also born out of an act of rape and not love, Baba did not die of heart attack, Maa killed him.
Never mind.
There is no guilt, no pain, the scars of love are deeper that I gained.
REST IN PEACE."
Never mind.
There is no guilt, no pain, the scars of love are deeper that I gained.
REST IN PEACE."
End
