Summary and Analysis of Mascara by Meena Kandasamy

Meena Kandasamy is a poet, novelist and Dalit activist from Tamil Nadu, South India. She has brought out three collections of poetry and she usually writes about marginalised groups such as dalits, women etc… Her poems exclusively deals with issues of caste and gender discrimination. The poem ‘Mascara’ is taken for the collection Touch

The poem ‘Mascara’ begins with a call-girl applying mascara before she prepares to welcome the next client for sexual intercourse. The poet catches a nervous moment of the girl as she glances in the mirror and comments that her dyed eyes mourn her body’s sins. She ponders on the image reflected in the looking glass and realises that those long buried vague dreams of her youth too had dark outlines. She cries silently and the mascara filled tears are black like her body. 

In the following section, the poet reveals the reason for the distress of the call-girl as she was born into a matrilineal family of temple prostitutes in India. At this point, she turns out to be a representative of the devadasi women who were devoted to worship and serve the deities. Women from non-Brahmin and Dalit castes were forced to be devadasis and they were consoled by the weight of the age old tradition.

During the early period, ‘devadasis’ - servants of God- were respected by the kings and local patrons and later on their social position deteriorated; they were reduced to temple prostitutes. Describing the pitiable condition of these women, the poet ironically comments that their service to Gods (love making to the patrons as well ) is not counted as karma and they are not rewarded. According to karma theory, one is rewarded for the virtuous acts one did in the previous births.

The call-girl desperately prays to the Gods for liberation and her helplessness does not evoke any answers from them. The poet comments that the Gods too do not understand the depth of her dreams.

In the final part of the poem, the call-girl has an epiphanic realisation that the same body which was described as ‘sinful’ earlier can be an instrument of liberation. She transforms her body and its adornments (cosmetics) as a tool of resistance (war paints). By the time she completes donning mascara, she has transformed herself into a goddess of revenge, Kali and her waiting for deliverance ends.