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A female beggar in tatters lies,
The infant in her lap bitterly cries.
She tries to make the child cool,
But in vain results all her tool.
II
Maybe the baby is with a body hot, seriously ill,
Maybe it badly needs medical drill.
Alas! She does not have the wherewithal to get it cured,
And have the misfortune’s fangs temporarily demurred.
III
The snarl of the crowd around usually goes,
There is none to relieve her of her throes.
A scene her mind frequently dogs,
Attacks by a pack of wolves and dogs.
IV
She darts further back into recesses of the past,
Witnesses how stars put her into a happy cast.
Her father smoothly pulled the family’s car,
And successfully managed the worldly war.
V
But heavens for her had decreed a saga of sorrow,
The events of her life changed for a painful morrow.
Her healthy mother mercilessly Death gobbles,
An avalanche of miseries falls to engineer troubles.
VI
Her father, care of a new mother fast provides,
That may fill her life’s void with long strides.
Alas! Her father’s expectations were misplaced,
The new mother schemed to have her fast displaced.
VII
Pangs of daily tortures suffered at home made her decide
To leave the hell before her father’s return to home might coincide.
She fled to a nearby town hoping to rid herself of a loathsome life,
Driven by a bitch’s threatening moves - moves of her father’s new wife.
VIII
To a stranger good samaritan's bait she falls,
And in her naivety decides to answer his calls.
To a rich fat lady living in a big house, her he took,
Whom a magnanimous woman she mistook.
IX
Soon her himalayan blunder she realised,
Her virgin grove without her consent vandalised.
To her horror found the fields suddenly ploughed,
A seed without paternity’s tag in her womb sowed.
X
Misfortune she again decided to dodge,
And fled for life from her lodge.
On the pavement once she to this world a baby brings,
A baby that cannot trace to paternal links.
XI
Soon the baby infection acquires,
And cries hoarse much care it requires.
"Chal Hut"- the sweeper on the platform orders,
With a jolt bringing her close to crude life’s corners.
Note: The Nirbhaya rape and fatal brutal assault case of 2012 and its recurrence has exposed the whole of the Indian society to the most heinous crime perpetrated against women - rape. This poem tells the story of a star-crossed girl falling a victim to rape totally oblivious of the meanness and ill intent of a man posing as a good samaritan. |
