Women's Day

"We are cute daughters, sweet sisters, lovely lovers, darling wives, adorable mothers.

We are a source of strength. We are Women."

A very happy Women's Day to all the women around!

Pic Src: Girl Child

On Women's Day today, a news making it to the front page of the Ludhiana supplement of 'The Tribune' made my head hang in shame: Baby girl left to die in beehive

Shouldn't we all be ashamed for this? As a part of the society, we all are at fault. Each one of us is just as guilty. Society is not something that exists in absentia. We all make up this society but when it comes to blaming for the wrongs, we most casually blame it on society, as if that is some alien thing. Folks, it is high time, we tidied ourselves up and become civilized in the true sense of the term.

As a tribute to the girl child, I would like to share one of my poems, 'Female Foeticide':

A spark of life

about to die,

a cry that’s unheard –

and the unmindful

that looks on!

Mother’s womb is just

cradle turned into grave,

where death comes with life,

where lively lives are laid to rest.

A cry piercing the walls –

the walls of separation,

reaches out;

but oh! falls on deaf ears.

“Let me breathe, oh,

let me live!

They say like mother, like daughter;

O Mother!

Your own fleshes don’t slaughter.

Give me lungful of fresh air,

let me, O, let me enjoy

life’s little pleasure,

let me enjoy the high flight,

the flight of my dreams;

please don’t pity,

don’t pity my poor plight.

Give me wings to fly

the taste of success

even if want to try.

Mother, I am your part

please don’t set me apart.

Think of your childhood:

your mother’s lap

and your father’s pat

your brother’s care

and a family fair.

Don’t deprive me of

the joys of infancy,

exuberance of childhood,

the teenager’s fancy, and the

satisfaction of motherhood.”

The very word ‘motherhood’

rings a bell,

she thinks of her mother –

her poor helpless mother

her piercing pain,

the heart-rending torture.

And she forgets all,

her own self;

the pain vanishes

the flowers dry away

her dreams lose colour

the shadows don’t haunt her

on her face spread palour.

Mother’s face fills her sight

tears lurking in mother’s eyes

while pain stood staring at her.

© Amritbir Kaur
(just to suggest that please don't copy!!!)