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Fear, shame, prejudice - all comes the way of a girl from the moment she is born, changing form only to suit the stage of life she's at. But despite it all, she survives, thrives. How?
Fear, shame, prejudice – all comes the way of a girl from the moment she is born, changing form only to suit the stage of life she’s at. But despite it all, she survives, thrives. How?
The first fear at being conceived A girl they would not want The goddess worshippers who seek Only sons as progeny
The second fear at being born Will I survive the neglect and scorn? The birth they don’t celebrate But secretly mourn
The next fear every step of a girl life Being treated as less, unequal and frail The constant weighing of my being On a prejudiced scale
The trickle of blood down my legs Is isolation, humiliation and fear at best? No longer sacred, I am now impure They say so, I am not sure
Is my body then just a contested space? Their honour and shame In a vagina they so hate? The body they touch The soul they fail to embrace
The next threshold, a pedestal actually Of producing their children Sons ideally and abysmally The pedestal is a prison A cage factually
Fear ridden is the fate of a girl The fear of being Of self, of world Of being a body That can be used and mauled Of bringing “shame” And “honour” to uphold?
And then I wonder If I am frail How is it that over all the fears I prevail?
I do not fit into frames any more I redefine identity Carving wings from adversity I soar
So now I am fearless As fearless one can ever be Because I speak of feminism And equality But I do not adhere to what Beauvoir said My gender won’t be my destiny!
Editor’s note: This story had been shortlisted for the June 2018 Muse of the Month, but not among the top 5 winners.
Image source: By Ilya Mauter [CC BY 3.0 ], from Wikimedia Commons
Pooja Priyamvada is an author, columnist, translator, online content & Social Media consultant, and poet. An awarded bi-lingual blogger she is a trained psychological/mental health first aider, mindfulness & grief facilitator, emotional wellness trainer, reflective read more...
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Neena was the sole caregiver of Amma and though one would think that Amma was dependent on her, Neena felt otherwise.
Neena inhaled the aroma that emanated from the pan and took a deep breath. The aroma of cumin interspersed with butter transported her back to the modest kitchen in her native village. She could picture her father standing in the kitchen wearing his white crisp kurta as he made delectable concoctions for his only daughter.
Neena grew up in a home where both her parents worked together in tandem to keep the house up and running. She had a blissful childhood in her modest two-room house. The house was small but every nook and cranny gave her memories of a lifetime. Neena’s young heart imagined that her life would follow the same cheerful course. But how wrong she was!
When she was sixteen, the catastrophic clutches of destiny snatched away her parents. They passed away in a road accident and Neena was devastated. Relatives thronged her now gloomy house and soon it was decided that she should be married off.
Being a writer, Nivedita Louis recognises the struggles of a first-time woman writer and helps many articulate their voice with development, content edits as a publisher.
“I usually write during night”, says author Nivedita Louis during our conversation. Chuckling she continues,” It’s easier then to focus solely on writing. Nivedita Louis is a writer, with varied interests and one of the founders of Her Stories, a feminist publishing house, based in Chennai.
In a candid conversation she shared her journey from small-town Tamil Nadu to becoming a history buff, an award-winning author and now a publisher.
Nivedita was born and raised in a small town in Tamil Nadu. It was for schooling that she first arrived in Chennai. Then known as Madras, she recalls being awed by the city. Her love-story with the city, its people and thus began which continues till date. She credits her perseverance and passion to make a difference to her days as a vocational student among the elite sections of Madras.
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