Your heart must have skipped a beat when you first heard my heartbeat,
Your brow must have frowned. How couldn’t it?
You had nothing
You must have spent many sleepless nights
But look Maa, today here I am.
Maa…
You held on to me in your womb, with all your might,
When life was scarce, you let me  feed off the love you had.
You prayed silently for a life that would not be so bad,
And look Maa, today here I am.
Maa…
Standing at the station you held your uterus in pain,
Your heart longing for that arm to help you board  the train.
Eyes travelled and searched..  could that be him?
But in vain.
Your journey began and so did mine.
You pushed through the crowd, and I through your womb.
No doctors, no nurses.
Trains halted. Stones pelted.
Shrill cries, both yours and mine.
And look Maa, today here I am.

Insia Dariwala is a graduate from F.I.T New York (Advertising and Mass communications), loves to tell stories and is a filmmaker. ‘The Candy Man’  (www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSr0ne-iizs) her hard hitting debut film on child abuse won her two ‘Best Director’ awards in India (2009, 2010) and also got nominated at Barcelona International Film Festival and the New York Short film Festival in 2010.