Prathibha Nandakumar

-1-

Nipple clips and naked jeans

The line between bold and vulgar is thin – fashionist Maggie Weber
Exceptional women looking and feeling best in,
like Kim’s Mugler drip straight out of the ocean wet look,
or the Gothic strappy bustier dress, that everyone wears at least once
or the Invisible Collection or ArdAzAei or whatever.
Who thought of applying Physics to Couture, eh?
To be a couturier means to work with intimacy,
said Stéphane Rolland, we heal the envelope.
It wasn’t a typo, they don’t seal, these days.
Lopez’s Green Versace was too much fabric.
It is a symbiosis, states Adeline André
whose mantra is, there is only the fabric and the body in motion.
Mostly body, less fabric in motion.
And then Jordan Roth gives new gyan
it is a radical act to dress in the clothes of our imagination.
Sofia Crociani’s unbridled creative freedom
is enabled by utmost technical rigour.
While Iris Van Herpen is busy dressing the soul
Jad Hobeika declares I’ve understood the power of the garment.
Yes, the power of the garment
And the absence of it.
We from the land of Kamasutra understand it best.
Naked jeans anyone?
Cleavages and butt cracks still make headlines.
Desperate hands constantly tugging the
neckline low and hemline up. Stop covering, stupid dress.
Reels of grouping hands, ogling lenses go viral instantly.
Jerking teenage boys from Bommasandra,
Or someplace nobody has heard of, scroll for more.
Compelling haute couture, every female body
craving for show of flesh. Get as naked as you can get.
A thong is a thong is a thong,
visible Whale Tail, barely there G string,
limited-edition bushy thong with built-in faux-pubic hair.
But a dress hanging by the nipple clips?
Breaking the mold, you say, Chappell Roan?
Shush….. Desi girls are listening.
You are speaking their language.
Caught in the web, struggling to keep up.
Bare it all. Reveal. Display. Show some skin.
Woman is her body?
Who called her a tea bag?
You can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water?
On the red carpet, she is all spectacle all the way.
**

-2-

Stripping Draupadi

No, it was not the latest striptease show in town.
It was an incident straight out of our ancient epic,
one that is still talked about today.
That’s how our ancestors did it.
Make no mistake: this was not romantic undressing.
It was a clear case of manhandling a menstruating woman.
It was the intentional outraging of a woman’s modesty
A crime under Section 354 IPC.

Point to be noted, my lord: she was minding her own business
resting leisurely on the royal bed. She wasn’t playing some Korean game.
She was dressed skimpily, yes, she was not at the Met Gala.
There were no paid media, no paparazzi.
She was the queen bee, not a dancer girl in a movie,
she had no reason to bother dressing up.
She hadn’t signed up for Bigg Boss, either,
she had no interest in winning any tasks.
And then they came for her.
She was summoned, and she refused to go.
She didn’t want to and shouldn’t have to.
How did they take her?
They dragged her by the hair.
And how was she stripped?
It was no wardrobe malfunction.
The scanty fabric wrapped around her
was snatched away hurriedly. In an instant
she was standing naked, amidst a crowd of ogling men.
Perhaps menstrual blood running down her shivering legs.
But the classics cannot have a
queen bee stripped of her wings.
Pawned by her husbands, lost, stripped,
she stands naked, and asks questions that remain
eternally unanswered: Who owns a woman,
Who owns her body, can she be stripped
for a crime committed by her husband(s)?
There was no way to defend it. Hence,
they created the ‘Krishna magic’.
What a brilliant idea!
The unending saree was a professional FX job.
We know that it is all a made-up fantasy,
but we pretend to believe it and retell it,
relieved that she wasn’t butt-naked, no frontal nude,
that her modesty, after all, was not tampered with.
But come on… tell us the truth,
What exactly happened that day?

-3-

Wardrobe malfunction

The evening sky puts on a show:
What myriad colors and shapes!
The night rain has a grander plan,
Such an incessant downpour.
The morning rays, the blooming flowers,
the birds, the bees and all the rest:
a spectacle choreographed with precision, unlike,
the wardrobe malfunctions they call ‘iconic’:
someone’s breasts popping out, someone else’s
pants splitting, running off the stage, grinning,
amidst wolf-whistle holding on to whatever is left.
Scrolling through viral wardrobe – malfunction reels,
It suddenly dawned on me that not all were accidents.
Some deliberate – a spectacle to fulfill a mad urge to flash.
Mother Nature would surely be offended.

-4-

Truth kills lie

The killer complains of mosquitoes in the cell
Lie keeps killing the Truth, again and again.
Truth keeps rising from the bottom of the well.
Lie asks for a bed, a pillow, a blanket
Yearns for the warmth of the sun
Fungus ridden fingers grip the bars
Defiant eyes shed tears
Lie spreads itself out, lies down, and dreams
Wanders the courtyard, soaking in the sunlight
The colours it wore melt away, tears dry up
The curtain falls, cash bundles change hands
Truth stays quietly at home, silently growing.
Sipping gruel, crawling on all four, speaking in babbles
Unseen by anyone, nourishing itself, arms growing strong
It rises beyond lie — immense, towering the sky
Then one day, truth flicks away lie with a single snap
Hurls it into the abyss — never to rise again, never to lift its head.
Truth kills lie but only once.

Prathibha Nandakumar is a distinguished bilingual poet, journalist, filmmaker, columnist, and translator from Bengaluru, Karnataka. Writing with equal distinction in Kannada and English, she is widely recognized as one of the leading contemporary literary voices in India.   Her creative work spans poetry, journalism, cinema, and translation, reflecting a deep engagement with literature, culture, and society. Through her evocative writing and multifaceted artistic pursuits, Prathibha Nandakumar has enriched both Kannada and English literary landscapes.   As a poet and public intellectual, she continues to inspire readers and audiences through her insightful reflections, artistic versatility, and enduring contribution to contemporary Indian literature and culture.