What do we envision through The Pomelo?
Why is The Pomelo crucial in a tone-policed world of reading, writing, and speaking up?
There are a plethora of discourses around the importance of representation, which is surrounded by the innumerable debates around it, however, this is one among many reasons. Why was its conception crucial to the team? On one hand, we live in a diverse country but seldom do we get to witness the diversity of opinions, diversity of individuals who are treated more than a tokenistic gesture. Women, racial-ethnic minorities, sexual minorities, religious minority groups, are not to be treated as mere tokens. Their opinions matter, their creativity must find space in those areas where the powerful & dominant have huge social and cultural capital against the rest.
The Pomelo is a eulogy for those who never got to speak, whose opinions were never considered, whose existence was reduced to their oppressed identities. However, The Pomelo is also a celebration of voices that echo with strength and fear, who break open the hegemonic structures. It was with this intention, to not speak for them but a platform to amplify their voices, wherein we pass the mic to those who are different from us in all aspects. To bring in the voices of the invisiblised individuals whose work will be cherished and understood.
Our lives are appropriated by many individuals who are an outsider, we constantly fear to acknowledge our identities that do not get acceptance within society. At times the visible becomes a facade to socially conform, here we ask you to embrace individuality, away from assumptions and stereotypes.
Will this platform reach the majority or will it again be anchored within circles that are already familiar with these voices?
Even at The Pomelo, we believe in learning and unlearning, this carousal never ends, an educated stagnant mind does more harm than one that has not received formal education. We are ready to be uncomfortable with the metaphors, your stories, poems, and opinions. This discomfort challenges the status quoist nature of knowledge production, which is of utmost importance to bring in progressive and structural changes within society.
We feel a huge part of our own lives, we have lived to be someone else, choosing one identity over the other, distancing from ideas, conversations that made us feel that we did not fit into the mainstream society. Inequality, injustice is ubiquitous but how much do we take note of it? Are we ignorant, can we look at these from other perspectives? The answers are never certain, never prepared, and never uniform. This is a call to bring in your voices, to write fearlessly, and be comfortable in who you are, without fear and without hesitation.