Buy me or mortgage me
Because I’m your property
Sell me or divide me
Because I have no autonomy
Character assassinate what fate had in store for me
Because I am born in captivity
There is only pain and no gain for me
Because I am circled in patriarchy.
This is not a tale of mythology
Nor is it a fable of Queen Draupadi,
It signifies the lives of you and me.
It has various shades and has one for everybody
I am a daughter, a mother, a sister, a wife
But for myself, I am nobody.
Even in the 21st century you must stick to femininity,
Any deviance shall be met with terrible catastrophe
You may be a doctor, a lawyer or a CEO
But your roti at the end should only be gol.
They expect you to be clad with modernity
But what is modernity remains to be defined by society
‘Wanted a fair, good looking, well educated bride’, they say
Wanted a trophy that they can display is what they do not say.
‘X’ decides, ‘Y’ implements whose house ‘You’ will be sent
You are an object which can be bought, sold, damaged or lent
From Draupadi to Laxmi to Nirbhaya, there is no end.
Sehal Jain believes that unlearning is the most important step in learning.
Featured illustration credit: Vaibhavi Kowshik