(A little to back up my piece:
1] Sita is believed to be the daughter of the Earth, she was adopted by a
king when she was found lying in front of his kingdom. She finally
returned to her home-Earth- when she was asked by her husband, Ram, to
walk through fire for the second time to prove her chastity after she had
been rescued from the evil king- Ravan. The earth parted to let her in.
2] Draupadi was a wife to all the five Pandavas and was disrespected
obscenely in a palace court by the Kauravas, after which she decided she
would only tie her hair once she had the Kauravas’ blood to wash it with,
leading to the Mahabharat).
I hear it, I hear the ground part for her.
I grab her by her bruised palm, incapable of letting go,
As I feel a deep slash on my shoulder.
Sita smiles; almost throttled, she says,
“ It is time for me to go back home..your..hair..”
I stab the giants together, their ruthless blood flowing down my open
Mane, my dream is now my nightmare.
I shed a tear involuntarily; my eyes scan the bloody, immobile exterior of
My fourth husband, just like the others who lie dead among millions.
Gambled away, dragged by my hair, disrobed off my honour while he stood there
Stoic; the same placid expression.
To be equally rationed amongst five brothers, I was a commodity.
Expectance of acceptance and subservience, only to me seemed like an oddity!
I swore by their blood, and now I have it on my hands, it is soaked on the
Terrain I tread.
Every man that wronged me and my kind was enough to raise a battalion.
“Women waging wars?! Gag them, chain them, put them in their place!”
Was what was said.
As I encompass the magnitude of destruction, I am convinced there was
No other way, it had to be done.
For a future world where the sun shines on the glory of my kind,
Where disrespect and insensitivity towards consent would never be an option.
In a different time, the sun shines and the sun sets every day
A woman rises with a blackened eye to prepare tea for the husband,
Just the right way.
She walks to the bus, her heart almost detonating inside as her back stings
With the males’ filthy gaze.
Concern for her shows her daughter, who is dismissed and taught to be
By it unfazed.
“Mother, for every Sita then, there is a you and
For every Draupadi then, there is a me.
This is our Mahabharat, that we and only we can fight, mummy.”
“You’d like to walk through fire? Then do so, but for yourself, and hence
Rise like the embers, let’s raise our voice to fill the damn silence!”
It took a threat to silence her father and a yell to frighten the rest,
But so many go unheard since “Gag them, rape them, keep them in their place” is still what is heard the best.
Every soul who thinks a woman cannot wage a war and is waiting for the impending
World War Three,
We have fought and continue to fight one every single day, because we as a society cannot
Leave ourselves be.
You have no worth for yourself, not even for the blood in the soil which is
YOUR OWN, and mine too.
Ask for our assistance when you wage the third World War, we know a
Few things about a war or two.
-Ananya Nayar