By Nandini Garg:
She wakes when the mankind sleeps
Toils while her inmates are tranquil.
She fights, battles and fetches for them.
Feeds them her bread.
Like a street hawker she is.
Withholding and drifting from those hungry eyes.
With sun shrieking in the skies.
Travels barefooted on blistering streets.
Doing every bit to make a penny.
Begging for alms, mooching off the bins.
This is still finer, until you see the other side.
Father passed away, mother re-married.
More siblings to fetch for.. More alms needed.
Mislaid another hour of her sleep and rest.
Setting on with the dawn and off with the dusk.
Sour eyes and esurient stomach.
Fragile and rickety bones get no rest.
Mother still not home and she’s put to test..!!
Retires to bed to catch a breathe.
No mercy for her as she’s a girl.
Comes in a aggressive step-father to seize away her esteemed assets.
She’s hit.. She’s scourged.. Strained, harassed and Wounded..
Lying on the ground.. She bleeds and cries..
The mother is late as a ritual it is.
And therefore the process repeats.
A hungry step-father squelches his thirst.
She bleeds.. She sobs..
She pleads for clemency..
But she has No right
After all she’s a girl child..!!
Days pass by but they provide No allay.
Her belly bulges.
A juvenile she is and another one she now depicts.
Mother locates and she’s thrashed.. Condemned and called names.
Mother smears her for the idiosyncrasy she could not retain.
But she abides in silence and dare not open her mouth.
More tears, injuries, pain, hurt and distress.
Such a fragile body she had,
And another frail body breathed inside,
But they could not fight with what was destined.
Innocence with her, innocence died.
With the progenitors watching from outside.
Proving Solace, comfort and respite to both.
After all she was born for it.
Born to be abominated.. hit and bruised..
Cursed and jinxed to be a girl child..!!
After all she was a GIRL child..!!