My Hands Reach the Door-Latch

Mother, this tattered “chaddar”
Woven out of the treads of traditions,
Take it back from me …..
You have given up trying to mend it,
How can you pass it to me?

Mother, this latch on the door
You are told to keep it locked
From the inside,
        Open it now
Otherwise I have become tall enough
To reach out to it.

Mother, forgive me
I go away leaving you behind,
I cannot bear to see my daughter
Stumbling in the dark.

Mother, I am no bitch
Who for the sake of a few morsels will
Keep looking anxiously at the faces of father, brother,
                                          father-in-law, husband, son,
Wag my tail and beg from them.

Mother, do not give this food to me
Which was dished out to you in charity,
A fourth of my father’s heritage
And the favour of  “meher” from the husband.

I want to break away from this noose around my neck,
I am also a creature who breathes,
I can also struggle for survival,
I cannot put my mind in a cage
And hand it over to somebody.
I do not want to see the world
              from behind the veil,

It remain confined within four walls
Yet I know that a demon
Is ravaging the city, crying that it can smell human blood.
The men folk have asked me to tie the “Imam-Zamin”,
Armed with daggers and spears, they go to fight it
And they tell me to look from the window, see the battle.
But I too am threatened by the demon,
Why shouldn’t I go to fight it too?
What sort of life is this,
That like bread, my share of life is handed out to me,
And in the court of this All-too-Generous, Providing
One
I am like an attending servant
Ready to give my heart and soul.

Mother, what in the name of “ghutti”
              did you feed me at my birth
That all my limbs are intact
But still I invite pity.
Look, my hand has reached the door latch.
From a cage kept in my father’s court-yard
I go now to free my mind.
If at all you want to remember or help me in some way,
Then think of the reason you spent your life in darkness,
          in spite of the blazing sun.
If you cannot come up with any reason,
Then open the door latch,
And outside under the vast sky, in the open air,
Even if you can’t see me
You will hear my daughter or grand-daughter’s
Free voice resounding back at you.