Snatched away her childhood,
Unaware of future's doom,
A four year old girl child
Given to an aged groom.
Hope left behind, she's lost a home
Is marriage a kind of game?
A man, a stranger to call her own
She does not know his name.
Here upon the mandap,
She makes a pretty bride,
Unknowing of the years ahead
That will burn her inside.
At thirteen she is a widow, watching
In horror, her husbands pyre.
For love's sake or for life itself,
Shes laid upon the 'sacred' fire.
7 comments:
A telling comment on the twin scourges of child marriage & sati that still haunt the Indian woman, from the hinterland,especially!!
Back here after a long time.Nice to see you write such stuff.Keep it up is all I would say!!
hmmm...social commentary(again)!
nice attempt! (but shouldn't this be left to prose?)
was this written for a specific purpose, or is it natural poetry?
i dunno...i think the poem is moving, but doesn't it create a sort of superficial atmosphere of pathos?
(sorry for being so sceptical, but I prefer ur voice in poems other than social commentary- perhaps the problem is in me. i don't know)
I've posted here twice and my comments keep dissapearing so I'm just testing to see
child marriage is crazy, in fact nobody should get married in their twenties, well that's what i think.
A sense of sadness and despair..and helplessness..! i can imagine the pain of a child marriage..to an unknown stranger
Sameer-> It infuriates me that social change is such a long hard battle in our country! How many more girls must suffer?
Shubhodeep-> Perhaps you are right. But I will affirm that this poem was no forced attempt. I was an organiser for the LAADLI campaign in South Bombay and this poem was waiting to be written.
SUE-> pOOR YOU! Still waiting....
GULNAZ- You go girl!
Jyotsna-> If we can feel the pain of where they are, we have made a difference!
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