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She was no  Nirbhaya….

Not born in the age of fast news;

No voices, no candles, no protests,

Grieved for her!

She hadn’t gone out with a friend;

No jeans; no mobiles;

No reason for fingers to be pointed!

Being a woman, her only fault!

Half the world missed her story…

A story….

Of infinite agony;

Of unlived life;

Of unseeing eyes;

Of darkness and nothingness!

She breathed on…

Disowned and abandoned!

She was not ‘killed’, you see….!

And she was not even ‘raped’ they say…

Then…

What had happened with her

What took the very life out of her

And turned the memory into a blank void

Why did she suffer for four decades plus two

Curled-up like a fetus;

Groping for the touch of life

That eluded her!

And yet…

This lifeless, harmless frame

A mere bundle of bones,

Threatened the powers that be

Shook the very foundations of justice.

Now, that she says adieu

To the world that wasn’t hers

To a life that she didn’t live

Eulogies pour aplenty

From the corridors of power!

Is it grief

Or a big sense of relief?

 

Narinder Jit Kaur is a retired Associate Professor from Patiala,who taught English Literature for 31 Years in various Government Colleges of Punjab. A writer and a translator, she has five books of translations, from Punjabi to English, to her credit Including Voices In The Back Courtyard(Rupa & Co.) -An Anthology Of Short-Stories By Punjabi Women Writers. She writes articles, poems and short-stories in English, Punjabi and Hindi. You can read more from her on narinderjit.com

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