The Suryanelli Girl

the house where she lived as a little girl has become a star tourist attraction now. Taxi drivers slow down, routinely at the dusty approach road, bluntly pointing it out, triumphantly - Ah, that is the house the must-see house of the Suryanelli girl! A picnic to Munnar is never complete unless on the return trip you see that house the little pink house of the Suryanelli girl. Nobody has ever seen that girl ever since the day she burst upon like an atom bomb on news channels, bleeding thighs, torn skirt and all - still a secret satisfaction lurks there in having seen that little pink house of the Suryanelli girl. She is not there on Facebook or Twitter if you wish, you can….Google her name - ah, not her name, for she has no name - you may Google…. her little village there you will see, in smart collage the many activists, many ministers who promised the whole world to her - you get to know just about everything about her, but except her photograph, her given name: the world knows her, yet knows not her hidden face, her hidden name. Her village has no other claim to fame except this shame which etched it into the World Atlas from which she herself has vanished, of course without a trace - nameless, faceless, sunless Suryanelli Girl. ******* Note: - Surya-nelli in Malayalam means 'a place where there is no sun'. Suryanelli is a little village among hilly forests near Munnar in Kerala (India) . It is said, due to the dense woods, the village used to receive little sun light even during day time. (The poem was short-listed for the AIPC-2013 National Poetry Competition)