It is I who drink lonely Drinks at twelve, midnight, in hotels of strange towns, It is I who laugh, it is I who make love And then, feel shame, it is I who lie dying With a rattle in my throat. I am sinner, I am saint. I am the beloved and the Betrayed. I have no joys that are not yours, no Aches which are not yours. I too call myself I.

~ Kamala Suraiyya Das

Kamala Suraiyya Das Feminism Introduction

If wrappings of cloth can impart respectability, the most respectable persons are the Egyptian mummies, all wrapped in layers and layers of gauze

~ Kamala Suraiyya Das

Kamala Suraiyya Das Clothing Respect Sarcasm Shaming Society

A book is a good substitute for a man. Fiction, preferably

~ Kamala Suraiyya Das

Kamala Suraiyya Das Books Men Substitute

At sunset, on the river ban, KrishnaLoved her for the last time and left. . .That night in her husband's arms, Radha feltSo dead that he asked, What is wrong,Do you mind my kisses, love? And she said,Not not at all, but thought, What is It to the corpse if the maggots nip?

~ Kamala Suraiyya Das

Kamala Suraiyya Das Corpse Death Kamala Das Love Marriage Poem The Maggots