Women’s Web is saying Goodbye! Please make sure you read this important notification.
These are the thoughts of a broken girl. Just an ordinary girl in a busy world trying to make sense of whatever life offers her.
When I was a little girl, I played with mud. That was when I fell in love with my brown skin. The earth had my color. Each time I touched the earth, it was difficult to know where I ended and it began. All life belonged to my brown skin.
Life grew on my brown skin. The rainbow stretched from one end of my body to another. My eyes had the sky and the stars etched on it. I had mountain weaved in my hands. Rivers beneath my feet. I loved that I was earth. When little girls are set free, they love who they are. The earth set me free. My skin belonged to her. I am her.
I am the little brown skinned girl.
I am earth.
No, I won’t change my surname to yours when I marry you. I love you. But I don’t want to be you. I want to love you, being me. The sky has never asked the Sun to melt itself within the Sky. That is why the Sun lights up the earth.
I want to light up like the Sun, by being me. My surname, like yours, carries the struggle, strife, glory and victory of my ancestors. My ancestors’ sing through me. I don’t want to give that up. I want to keep it with me, so that they live through me.
Can we love like the Sky and the Sun and give birth to Earth?
Mothers must tell their daughters firmly that if any man punishes you, you must leave him. For love does not punish. If he calls you crazy and says, you are worthless, you must leave him. For love does not call names.
And if he says that you are his charity. You must run away the fastest. For love is between equals.
If you cry more than you laugh. You must leave. For love feels good.
Suffering is no virtue.
Love nurtures. Love evolves. Love feels right.
This article is part of a series. You may read Part 1 here.
Image source: Unsplash
Proud Indian. Senior Writer at Women's Web. Columnist. Book Reviewer. Street Theatre - Aatish. Dreamer. Workaholic. read more...
Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
Dear Women’s Web Community Member,
You may have wondered at our being on the quieter side during the last couple of months. Thank you for your patience, and we wanted to come back to you with a detailed note on what’s been happening at our end of things.
When we first began Women’s Web, as a blog from one woman’s desk along with a few like-minded souls, little could we have imagined the heights that it would soar to. Over the years, Women’s Web has published over 20000 stories (almost all by women), empowered countless women with the ideas, community and resources to chase their dreams, employed hundreds of women in core and project-based roles, and in the process, emerged as the OG women’s community in India. It has also inspired many others to build communities of a similar nature, all enabling women (and other-underrepresented groups) in their own ways.
Please enter your email address