On the day India was born
eleven demons were let loose.
A great celebration ensued
Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!
India won the match again!
The match is always fixed.
A man versus woman
Bilkis versus eleven Satans
played in broad daylight.
A great uproar, carnal pleasure,
proud chest, thumping victory:
Bilkis: Zero, India: Eleven.
It’s always the same match .
India always roots for its men
who are the ultimate umpires
of vices and virtues.
Now the women have decided to play
the last match.
Burning the demons,
not with the old mantras
of their holy scriptures,
but with courage and voices of their own.
They are not burning the effigies of the demons
but the rapists by throwing them
into the rage of fire.
All women, savarnas and avarnas,
all caste and creed,
standing in the same row
shouting for their hope
hailing the hell of eternal fire.
The heaven of books is crumbling
An earth for women is rising from the pyre.
Now
Bilkis finally wins the match
and India stops bleeding too.
About the poem: This poem is in support of the Let’s Raise Hell campaign. The campaign is being run for justice for Bilkis Bano who was raped twenty-two times and several of her family members were killed during an anti-Muslim pogrom in Godhra in 2002.
About the poem: This poem is in support of the Let’s Raise Hell campaign. The campaign is being run for justice for Bilkis Bano who was raped twenty-two times and several of her family members were killed during an anti-Muslim pogrom in Godhra in 2002.
Moumita Alam is a poet from West Bengal. Her poetry collection The Musings of the Dark is available on Amazon
