"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!
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!!!)
