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When women finally rise and speak up for their rights, nothing will be able to stop them. Hum dekhenge. We shall see.
We will come, From Kashmir, from Kanyakumari, With our dupattas, Our hijabs, Our skirts, Our shorts, Our bindis. And our daughters. We will come with our straight spines which Patriarchy could not break even after a thousand whips.
When you come with your batons and guns, Just before you kill us, We will write poetry of defiance and resistance, On our skin. On our bones. In between our tongues.
When you bury us, When you shut down every voice, Our buried bodies will grow into trees. And our daughters will taste every fruit from it.
You will teach them obedience, They will scream back resistance.
On a dark alley, a little girl will quip, “Inquilab Zindabad.” And a thousand others will march, like light. Speaking truth to power.
When you again bring the guns to us, We will wake up our dead daughters, Whom you never let be born. Women don’t forget two things, When their rights are taken away, And when their children are killed.
Every woman has a parallel world, A world, where their rights are enjoyed Where their daughters blossom, Their birthdays celebrated and names remembered.
This time when you come to ravage us, We will raise the dead daughters, the mothers, the grandmothers. And the first mother, whom you deny, Yet whose blood you still carry. Remember when Invisibles march, empires fall, crowns tumble. From a corner, a woman called “Iqbal Bano” in a black Saree will croon, “Hum Dekhenge.”
That day will mark the beginning of your fall. The daughters are already marching with poetry and resistance in their skin. Looking straight into your eyes, Calling for your fall.
You still want to blame, the skirts and the shorts and the upbringing and the values Look outside your window, Women are marching, Marking a new dawn.
Hello, Patriarchy, Are you listening?
“Hum Dekhenge: We will see. The first paragraph is inspired by Nabiya Khan’s poem, “Aayega Inquilab.”
Image source: a still from the film Thappad
Proud Indian. Senior Writer at Women's Web. Columnist. Book Reviewer. Street Theatre - Aatish. Dreamer. Workaholic. 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.
Women today don’t want to be in a partnership that complicates their lives further. They need an equal partner with whom they can figure out life as a team, playing by each other’s strengths.
We all are familiar with that one annoying aunty who is more interested in our marital status than in the dessert counter at a wedding. But these aunties have somehow become obsolete now. Now they are replaced by men we have in our lives. Friends, family, and even work colleagues. It’s the men who are worried about why we are not saying yes to one among their clans. What is wrong with us? Aren’t we scared of dying alone? Like them?
A recent interaction with a guy friend of mine turned sour when he lectured me about how I would regret not getting married at the right time. He lectured that every event in our lives needs to be completed within a certain timeframe set by society else we are doomed. I wasn’t angry. I was just disappointed to realize that annoying aunties are rapidly doubling in our society. And they don’t just appear at weddings or family functions anymore. They are everywhere. They are the real pandemic.
Let’s examine this a little closer.
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