Flightless Bird

Since time immemorial women in our societies have been treated as commodities of utility. Their roles have been meager and restrained mostly to be played inside the four walls of a home. Mothers and wives have been two of the most significant roles in which women are supposed to be strapped in. A girl child is trained right from her birth, how to gradually take over these roles. She is made to learn how to cook and win the hearts of the other gender, how to clean and keep things that way, how to manage daily stuff inside the boundaries of a home. She is even trained in order to restrain her free spirit transforming her into a flightless bird with the least imagination and powers. She is also made to think and believe that all this is common and the right order of how things are supposed to be.

She doubts all of it at first, she wants to be more than just that, she wishes to fly but the poison of discrimination gradually gets to her and clips her wings away as if they were never really there, she hopelessly yields to these demands and becomes what was forever expected out of her right from her birth and why wouldn't she, after all the poison has been brewing all around her, right from her childhood when she is restricted to go out and play with boys and girls of her age, when her right to a proper schooling and education is snatched away and thrown into the chulha (Indian rural oven). Her childhood turns into that same black smoke that comes out of the kitchen chimney.

Now that her world is confined just within the four walls of her home she must learn and accept the supremacy of the other gender, she is left with no other options. She is taught now how to be at the best of her behavior with the men of the house around, she is being taught how to be most attending and responsible. After all she is being taught all this as she will have to leave soon and be the lady of another house. Something that she always dreads and is also very anxious about - her marriage. The time is ripe now and she, the burden of a father, the same flightless bird must be sent away to her new home where she if lucky to have the company of a passionate and caring man shall thrive for the rest of her life and if not as seen in most of the cases, will be thrown into this dungeon of inexpressible sorrow and tragedy.

She takes up the new role of a loyal wife, at the beck and call of her lord if not a husband, who believes her to be his property and seems to be forever ready to put her through all definitions of hell. How dare if she resists his intentions... she must heed to all his commands, or else the bruises on her face will only grow deeper and her grief widen, hasn't she already been trained for this. The story continues and she learns to break down often and drink up her sorrows. “It’s all right" - she says to herself and hides all the welts away from others into her bosom. Never complaining about a twitch. She yields again as she has no means of escaping his clutches. Where would she go and what would she do. Her wings are gone anyway. Her own parents would not take her in and the society too would shoo her away if she left this monster to find her own way. She inevitably stays and silently bears all the pain alone in the shadows of this man in the dark.

Gradually she takes up this new role of a creator, a mother. She presumes that things will change now, but do they? All hell seems to break loose upon her when she brings a girl child onto this wretched earth. It is not just the physical abuse that she walks through each moment but the mental torture that comes from the taunts of her in laws. She bears it all silently, sobbing away alone and a new story of a flightless bird is in motion. 

If it were a boy would the story be any different – well, may be for a wile but then with time flying by, the mothers love, affection and care is all forgotten by this young man who calls himself his daddy’s son. Mother for him is just a slave who is required to feed him at the right time and take care of his daily needs and that's all about it. He forgets that his existence itself bears witness to the pain and suffering that she had to go through to bring him onto this earth. But she still loves him and cares for him as he is her son. Yet  he forgets because he is a man. He goes away and returns with his own woman and this mother of his is again pushed into that growling shadow of her past. 

The flightless bird looks towards the sky...