Sitting in a Crowded Indian Train
Jostling bodies, almost neck-to-neck
Shoulder to shoulder and thigh to thigh
Touch is almost natural, umbilical and material,

One self making space for the other.
There is something of a collective space
Collective bodies in coalescence create
To feel non-dual from the other.

Who shares and deserves to own half
Your rightfully deserving seat,
Or even a standing space.
It is not resisted but condoned.

No protest against this constriction
Of bodies to a moving space
Be it a train or a bus in Kolkata
Why did it come to be, and how?

How come no protest movement
against a government, a transport system
That ought to respect the rights
Of the body to own its space.

A minimum social distance in
In a non-covid, non-casteist sense.
The self deserves to hold itself
The body deserves to have its space

It’s a right to be human
Felt like having a place
By owning a space
Which is one’s own.