| Source: Google |
Womens' day has come and gone
Let us look at facts, of romantic
notions shorne
We claim independence, we are liberated
we say
But facts point out the other way
Take a look at the news every morn
At the injustice by womankind borne
Raped by strangers, by kith and kin
Starved by parents, thrown at birth
into bins
Women are their own enemies as so often
is said
Even more so from the time they are wed
Parents willing to pay anything of them
to get rid
Willing in tens of thousands for a
groom to bid
And woe betide if her own partner she
should find
There are many who this state of
affairs would mind
How dare she decide who should be her
mate
Ask the “khaps”, her brothers who
are all filled with hate
A “decent” “well brought-up”girl
should wait
For her parents to find her the right
mate
It is not in our “rich culture” to
date
She must marry the person who is handed
to her by “fate”
Her dreams are shattered from the word
go
Mil, Sil being the cause of many a woe
“Bring more money from your parents”
they say
If she can't she is slaughtered one day
Husband beats her mercilessly
And visits another woman shamelessly
The wife's job for her is cut out
Cook, clean, produce kids, her life is
a rut
Shackled to date by chains of “culture”
and “tradition”
Which ensures she gets no remission
From her miserable, wretched existence
Only death can be the ultimate
deliverance
This is of the majority the condition
And if you think the solution is
“education”
Think again, for in our country it is
only a word
Which means passing exams, getting
certificates, becoming a nerd
Our moral police are eternally alert
When it comes to “traditional values”
and anyone in a skirt
Traditions do not apply to men
Culture is not something to be
protected by them
And then our “respect” for women
and Goddesses we assert
While day in and day out their
interests we hurt
Nothing has changed since Joan at the
stakes was burnt
Isn't it sad, to date nothing better
has been learnt
In order a real change in society to
effect
All negative values need to completely
reject
We need to change the way we think
To throw out such practices that so
utterly stink
A civilized society if we wish to be
Every individual needs to be free
From practices which their freedom of
expression stifle
And with their dignity and basic human
rights trifle
A society where a woman is free
To prosperity is the ultimate key
Where women are happy there the Gods
dwell
Where they are not, there life is a
hell
If a change we really want
Don't allow anything you to daunt
For change must inevitably start with
“me”
Not with granny, uncle, she or he.
