When I was a child,
My mother told me,
Not to be afraid of pain,
Not the one that tears you apart
Meets you in a car accident
Or breaks your heart
A Woman’s life is characterised by pain
The pain of periods
The pain of losing your virginity
The pain of being pregnant
The pain of giving birth
That’s equal to breaking of 20 bones
The pain of everything
And I have learnt a lot
From my mother
Who gradually cut away the
Shackles of an unhappy marriage,
Embraced her freedom
From my aunt
Who was cheated on and left by
Her drunk husband
Who was crushed and
On the verge of the end thrice in a car
Who fears to tell her daughter that
She is adopted
Who was robbed by her friend
Scanted by her brothers
From my maternal grand mother
Who has seen three-generations
Tremble crumble and rise
And brought up six with innocence
From my sister
Who has realised after
all seeing at the age of 20
that we must never
trust anyone blindly
From myself
That I cannot cry every time
I am injected or every time I fall
like a phoenix, we have
to rise from the ashes of our dead dreams
A woman’s life is pain
Pain of discrimination
Living an entire life
only trying to prove her individuality
Her tears a proof of her efforts
Now, I tell myself, not to be delicate, but strong,
Not soft but fiery
I have risen above myself
What are you then?
So, if you, for one second
Attempt to tie me down
Or dismiss me with your egoistic mentality
I’ll burn away,
Like a Phoenix,
I’ll rise from your ashes.