... on the International Women's Day that fell on 8 March

On the International Women's Day that fell on 8 March, my niece, without showing wide importance to my sleep, jumped on my back soldierly. She drilled into my ears, “Wake up! Let's have a play!” I was forced to wake up from my half-finished sleep and dance. She likes my dancing a lot. In her opinion, she finds resources of laughter and guffaw in my electrifying dance.

On the International Women's Day that fell on 8 March, the angelic face of my uncle's daughter's daughter appeared in my mind's eye. No way to escape from reality ~ the harshness of reality; she is no more with us. Thalassaemia has helped her escape the drudgery of life, which was given the saline of false hope, the red fluid of fancied revival.

On the International Women's Day that fell on 8 March, I saw lunatic Laxmi loitering about in our bazaar area. She is a street woman of neither desire nor despondency. She is shy of neither textile nor nudity. She walks alone with her tattered carryall filled with a voluntary meal. She is always given safety from the vile eyes of society by an unarmed forces of street dogs. She hugs them, yields occasional smiles and joins the feast at garbage.

On the International Women's Day that fell on 8 March, I cast a look at my mother. The unchanged woman of unchanged gravity was like an unchanged household deity. I whispered into her ear, “It's International Women's Day today”. She told, “It means nothing to me. It's ours. But any unnamed day is everyone's.”

... So, on the International Women's Day that fell on 8 March, I learned a perpetual jocundity, perpetual sadness, perpetual nonchalance and a perpetual refusal. That is the wholeness of woman, a symbol of purity and perfection, a horizon where rocking-the-cradle and ruling-the-world become one.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

on the international women's day that fell on 8th march.. I saw woman cornered in a tattered black shawl in the far end of the street. I see her everyday.. she is always there, except when it rains.. why? she waits for her son to take her 'home'. i see hope.

Hope is a good thing :)isnt it :)
A very happy women's day to you sir :)

Glynis Jolly said...

Very sad, my friend.

I have a tendency to ignore events like International Woman's Day because I know that I'm part of something much bigger.

A said...

A masterful meditation on woman. Interesting, instructive and extremely thought-provoking.

Rumki said...

I was a teacher too..now homemaker mother of two.Like you; love to write...
on the international women's day that fell on8th March..I saw a women's face that changed over the years but the proud smile on her face never change because this 8th March is the birthday of her evergreen loving,caring,romantic husband.

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