Could Watching Anais Nin Land Me In Jail ?
- Shruti Sareen
An orgy of four naked bodies –
the beautiful pair of nude buttocks
belong to Maria de Madeiros: the charming
actress who plays Anais Nin.
The seductive way she pronounces Aa-na-iis.
She is in bed
with Henry – isn’t he June’s husband?
Anais is jealous: He has someone
who drives him to pain and chaos.
Hold your horses: Hugo knows. So does June.
Women kissing men,
women kissing women,
belles dancing, nude?
Be careful Anais, says Eduardo.
Abnormal pleasures take away
the taste of normal ones.
This is the film, Henry and June:
A slice of life from Anais Nin’s diary.
Notice from National Cyber Crime Portal:
Your computer is locked for watching porn:
violence, paedophilia, homosexuality.
Pay up Rs 32,500, or face 2 years in jail.
All data from the device will be deleted
unless the fine is paid.
I panic. The National Cyber Crime Portal
has done what you did not.
- Shruti Sareen
Shruti Sareen studied at Rajghat Besant School, KFI, Varanasi. Graduating in English from Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi, she later earned a PhD from the same university, titled “Indian Feminisms in the 21st Century: Women’s Poetry in English”, based on which two Routledge monographs are forthcoming. Her debut poetry collection, A Witch Like You, was published by Girls on Key Poetry (Australia) in 2021. Her fictional memoir, The Yellow Wall, has been accepted for publication and is undergoing editing. She is currently working on a collection of love-letters addressed to creative figures around themes of sexuality and mental health, tentatively titled as Sapphic Epistles. She is also currently working on a collection of speculative fiction, with a working title of Berserk Banshees. She has had over a hundred poems, and a dozen works of short fiction, and creative non-fiction published/accepted for publication in journals and anthologies. She was an invited poet at global poetry festival, hosted by Russia, Poeisia-21. She lives and teaches in New Delhi, India.
