Owed

It is a little over two weeks since the New Year eve, and the reports of molestations of women in Bangalore. India's IT capital and one of its most promising cities where scores of women work in high technology environments, is unfortunately not physically safe for them. But this is hardly the problem with Bangalore alone. Delhi, the political capital, wears the unfortunate badge of being the rape capital of the country. The heinous rape of Jyoti Singh in the city shook the country a few years ago and is a reminder of how far misogyny and treatment of women of socially inferior beings by some sub-cultures can go, if it is not curbed. While the headlines on the Bangalore molestations are inevitably winding down, we must, therefore, continue to remember the gender challenges that still persist, in order to ensure that such acts don't happen again.

With that in mind, today's post is a poem by Reena Kapoor, which she first wrote at the time of the infamous Delhi gang rape. 

*****

Owed

I have answers for the complacent ones, who lounge in their stupor

Bleating on what can we do? we are too little, too weak, too far away…

What answers do I give to those who were battered themselves

Whose bones were hacked, lives torn up like second hand trash

What do we tell those who cry: I was there. It was me they felled; the rest simply walked away…

I think of you often and wonder what dreams you left unfinished
How much your mother cried, or couldn't - even as she bled
When your father stopped breathing, every breath hurt so much
Whither those you touched drifted, emptied by humanity's betrayal

Yet there were those who simply left you for dead, near dead
"What could have we done?" "We are but helpless - indeed!"
"It is the system that's so rotten" they must boisterously proclaim
Then secure their homes to rebirth the same wretched filth

Maybe the sleeping wrath you woke will howl unto hell
Maybe the world will move on - unmoved
Maybe one day you'll come back, seek us out for an answer
Was it me or your dharma that was raped that day?

Reena Kapoor lives in San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, daughter and dog. She works in the tech industry. Her passions include gardening, poetry and photography.You can read more of her poetry on her blog Arrivals and Departures.