She’s everything the world wants her to be, because she complies every time.
As a girlfriend, she stays out longer when her boyfriend asks her to, risking her security (which is at risk because of the same sex he belongs to).
As a friend, she shuts up when her comrades make insensitive statements like – ‘are you PMSing?’, ‘go back to the kitchen, haha’ although she stands in complete disagreement (in only her mind) with them.
As a member of this devout and one-faced society, she changes her clothes into those that fit into others’ definition of appropriate.
As an employee she bears the subtle (and sometimes violent) nature of harassment that she’s subjected to when she works overnight, or is an aggressive worker, or simply because she’s good at her job.
As a daughter she quietly accepts the unfair verdicts of the family’s patriarch
And
As a wife she keeps mum when her husband demands for untimely sex or when he mocks her femininity in front of his friends.
You know why? Because since time immemorial, she has been told to do so.
But, not anymore. As a woman today, she decides to question; she decides to speak up; she decides to fight against everything that has been imposed on her for centuries. And most importantly, she decides to be the maker of CHANGE.
As a woman of this day and era, she says,
“Oh sweet boy, don’t say that I am no fun
Although this was the third time that I refused
When you asked me to stay a little longer
But what must I do, when the streets at night those lead home
Aren’t the ones on which girls wander
Oh humorous friend, don’t mock me for my feminism
I’m not sorry for not laughing at the joke you made on my vaginal system
Because the memories of my tormented and aching organs
Don’t allow me to even smirk at the horrid comments
You make with your overtly insecure jargon
Oh pious uncle, don’t say that I am shameless
Being a free spirited person, my only fault was to have worn those Capris
Without knowing how much you have progressed
The fact that my bare calves can invite this degree of humiliation
When you show yours in dhotis, lungis and shorts
Will always remain beyond my comprehension
Oh just and fair boss, don’t think that he is smarter
Judging me due to the silence with which I sat in the last meeting
Shouldn’t be my intellect’s deciding factor, against the opposite gender
Because what you don’t know with all your ignorance and hidden chauvinism
(that pays me less than the Rahul sitting beside me),
Is that the speaker at the same meeting was last night aspiring to be my sexual offender
Oh dear father, don’t deny me my dreams, don’t deny me my Masters
Why are you stuck in that archaic mindset, wishing to see me settled with two children at 21
When the world is moving faster
Doesn’t my education and development deserve atleast the same importance my brother’s motorbike demands get?
Remember that I am YOUR daughter too, an individual with her own needs that need to be met
Oh beloved husband don’t reprimand me for my womanly instincts
When my looks, presentation, thoughts and language don’t sync with your demands from a partner which are your own version of idealistic
Know, that I have accepted every flaw in you with grace
And it is the same respect that I rightfully demand as a woman today,
From every person I befriend, love, work with and face.”