Dear You, 

There is nothing as a perfect story. It’s all heresies. 
Concocted out of imagination, of half-remembered memories, of un-lived histories and a lot of he said, and then she said, and then he said.

Our story made of these garbled and plural narratives.
Catalysed by them, them in suits and robes. 

Let me share with you a couple of shorts I read in the papers. About them, them in suits and robes.

“No woman in a burqa (or a hijab or a burkini) has ever done me any harm. But I was sacked (without explanation) by a man in a suit. Men in suits mis-sold me pensions and endowments, costing me thousands of pounds. A man in a suit led us on a disastrous and illegal war. Men in suits led the banks and crashed the world economy. Other men in suits and robes increased the misery of millions through austerity. If we are to start telling people what to wear, maybe we should ban suits.”

Henry Stewart, London, in response to the ban on burkini in 15 towns in France in summers of 2016. Published in The Guardian. 

“Those men in pin-stripped suits addressing the peasants on India and other poor countries all over again - assuring them that they’re being robbed for their own good, like long ago they were colonised for their own good - what’s the difference? What’s changed?”

Arundhati Roy, New Delhi, criticising the construction of 3000 large and small dams on River Narmada which forcefully displaces lakhs of tribals and small farmers from their lands, forest and livelihood. Essay: Shape of the Beast. 

“For Jan Jambon, and his advisors, art is only relevant as a showy showpiece for a nationalist Flanders. Critical and innovative artists must give in and remain silent. Once in power, nationalist-populist seeks to get rid of people who have a free spirit and don't perform according to their sort of policies, and then you have a situation when you can actually change the whole cultural infrastructure of a country.” 

André Wilkens, Amsterdam, on the threat on culture and arts in Europe & on the 60% cut in art funding in Flanders announced in November 2019. 

In this story of them, them in suits and robes;
will the performing body - its voice, politics & aesthetics - be forced to play morally appropriate roles? Would it be pushed to become cultural mascots propagating nationalistic valour?

Yours faithfully, Me