We will be celebrating our 71st Independence this year

A lot of fuss over it will be made

A medley of programmes,

Great lectures on our accomplishments will-

Boldly be publicized on air

But have we really achieved genuine freedom?

At first we were slaves to foreign rule

And today desolately are of our own people!

Where do you see independence?

Who are the lucky ones enjoying it?

Our babes, young girls, women- young and old

All are victims in the clutches of prowling wolves!

Is this what freedom and achievement mean?

Some people have terribly misunderstood these words.

Today our women are free from foreign skulks

Only to fall a prey to our own native hoodlums

How very pathetic can that be for a country!

No female is safe anywhere,

Not even within the four walls of her house

Ruthlessly she’s hounded, abused, raped—

And the best joke is-

It’s always ‘she’ who is blamed, slandered, shamed-

Only because she happens to be a ‘woman’!

She’s told not to wear this or that type of clothes-

She mustn’t venture outdoors at night-

As if she isn’t molested in broad daylight

At times even in front of-

An unhelpful, unsupportive frightened audience

Of whom some brazenly shameless witness the horrendous act!!

Audaciously it’s proclaimed ‘Boys will be Boys’

Does it mean being a boy

They have a license to butcher someone’s honour

Just to test and prove their masculinity so atrociously?

Does it mean lechery endorses manhood?

It’s height of absolute nonsense

Such spineless statements are just to save their progeny!

It doesn’t matter whether a boy/man is rich or poor

He just needs to prove his rotten guts!

For heavens sake wake up and make –

This country and people especially women safe-

Before eulogizing about independence and progress!

Only females don’t have to be taught

Lessons of honour, respect, morality –

We must teach the same to our sons too

They must learn the difference between-

The honourable and dishonourable acts of manliness

They should understand it doesn’t lie in

Displaying their strength through obscene obnoxious acts

But in protecting the innocent and punishing the evil doers

A very significant lesson from the animals we must learn

To honour this precious life- A blessing of God, the Almighty!

Jai Hind!

                                                              ~Anuradha S. Bannore

                                                            Vadodara, India