Till Death Do Us Part....

The Prelude:

While going through some of my research on social issues in India, I came across this report on Domestic Violence. Violence against women is a serious problem in India. Overall, one-third of women age 15-49 have experienced physical violence and about 1 in 10 have experienced sexual violence. In total, 35 percent have experienced physical or sexual violence.This figure translates into millions of women who have suffered, and continue to suffer, at the hands of husbands and other family members. The frustration had to be vented, so here it goes....


The Poem:

“SMACK” came the first one, and she fell to the floor,
Heeding to her instincts, she got up and ran to shut the door.

Her advances were curtailed, and “BANG” came another one,
She tried hard to escape, but was gripped tightly by her bun.

Now the scene got murkier, and the beast lost his fuse,
Unzipping his pants, he removed his belt and put it to its next best use.

It went on for half an hour more, while the hooligan was in his trance,
The helpless lady was beaten up sore, sanity had no real chance.

A loss in a silly game of cards compounded by a heavy desi dose,
The frustration had to manifest itself, so the usual victim it chose.

Beaten, gagged and ravaged she was, forced to perform the pleasure act,
Oh what sadistic pleasure it could’ve been, it was a one sided pact.

He kicked the food and had his drink, till he lay unconscious on the bed,
Irony had her last laugh, she was still breathing besides him, her soul, long dead.

The Indian ways of life and the feminine strife are miraculously strange,
They see hell each living day with a smile, and shed a tear sometimes for a change.

It’s a wedding gift they say with pride, our husband’s a God, its close to our heart,
We’ve promised to bear with them, come what may, till death do us part!

Allow me to die...

The Prelude:

I read today's Times of India front page story: The plight of a 61-year-old women, who suffered a brutal sexual assault 36 years ago and has been lying in a vegetative state in a Mumbai hospital ever since, has moved the Supreme Court into setting aside its pro-life stance and examining the woman’s plea that her life be ended.

The woman, Aruna Ramachandra Shanbaug, does not want to live any more. Doctors have told her there is no chance of any improvement in her state. So she, through her ‘next friend’ Pinki Virani, decided to move the SC with a plea to ‘‘direct KEM Hospital not to force-feed her. This report jolted and stirred many emotions of disgust, anger, hopelessness and sympathy in me and I chose to manifest them through the following poem.......

The Poem:

I lie on my bed, oblivious to the world around,
I breathe no air, eat no food, I hear no sound
My room is locked, like it’s been for years,
I feel no emotion, no smile, no tears.

Completely unaware of the world around me,
No friend to support, no visitor to see.
Nothing to do and no wish to be,
Even loneliness seems to have deserted me.

Let me tell you what happened 36 years ago,
How exactly I took this irreversible blow.
Let me tell you the story of my fateful strife,
How it made, a mere mockery of life.

I was assaulted and used like a toy,
I was traumatized and sodomized by a ward boy.
Waylaid I was, wrapped with a dog chain around my neck,
A woman… a pet…. A toy, who cares, what the heck!

The chain cut off the oxygen and the blood supply to my brain,
Blinded, speechless, paralyzed, too numb to feel the pain.
I headed to the coma, and have been there since,
Life reached a full stop, thanks to my prince.

I’m just minutes away from a busy street scene,
I only get to see it 5 times a day, when the nurse comes to clean.
I love my nurses, we share a great bond,
Despite their love and care, I fail to respond.

I lie motionless in my room in a vegetative state,
Food spooned in my mouth, I don’t know what I ate.
Thanks to the shoddy work by cops, my prince got away,
After just 7 years in prison, he was freed to go astray.

The question is, what happens to me now,
I wish to invite death, But I don’t know how.
My caretaker has gone and pleaded to the law,
Silly girl, she overlooked an inherent flaw.

They will never let go of me, however hard she’d try,
The law, the people, this sadist world, just wants me to cry.
Knowing that I have no emotions left, my eyes have turned dry,
They’d still want me to shed a tear, only just once, before they allow me to die.