Dr. Viyatprajna Acharya

Half a millimetre thin—
Yes, just a little game of melanin.
Gods enslaved, demons enslaved,
and humans—mere shadows in between.
Less of it, you’re divine; more of it, a fiend.
Less in the West, more in the East—
What a strange, strange play of hues,
The game of melanin polymer reigns.

Colour breeds politics,
Colour rules economies,
Nations rise and fall on colour,
Sabers unsheathed in its name,
the soil drenched in blood.
Behold the absurdity of it all—
Fight over a chemical’s call!!

The soul weeps for Krishna, Rama
“Black! Black!” they jeer,
And the same lips worship
Shivaa, Shyama, the dark divine.
But when it comes to my bride,
She must be fair—
A dusky damsel, who dares to desire !
Such is the bizarre game of deluded
The endless sport of melanin shade.

Beauty is but this wafer-thin shell,
So easily withered, so frail.
But a heart that is kind,
A soul that is bright—
that is where life finds its light.
Know this to be the truth:
Shun the quarrel, all the toil,
Just for this half millimetre foil.

Dr. Viyatprajna Acharya is a Professor of Biochemistry at KIMS Medical College, who writes trilingually in Odia, English and Hindi. She is an art lover and her write-ups are basically bent towards social reforms.