IWD 2017

Another International Women’s Day arrived

amidst much a hullabaloo;

Feminism and women’s rights,

I hear,

are fanciful words,

for trending;

Indeed, such modern times

we live in.

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Yet, this day, mattered not the slightest,

for those multitude of women

who dutifully wake up at 4 am, cook,

prepare the children to the school,

feed them, get themselves ready,

and go to work by public transport,

only to realise that they have forgotten to

have their breakfast in this busy melee?

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                Alas, a commemorative day

cannot bring respect and dignity.

Women still get beaten by sticks and hands

and abused sexually – devoid of their consent;

With various diktats on ‘How to dress’

and ‘How to behave’,

surely they are victims of culture,

in this male dominated world.

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I can only admire you, honestly, women.

Your resilience in the wake of turmoil,

your well of compassion

that oozes to those around;

Your smile and your warmth,

that reverberates across many miles;

All you ever yearn and seek

is a gentle embrace and a modicum of respect.

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Must not the society owe this to those hapless women,

who are perpetually gagged and incapacitated?

Is this too much to ask when countries

are obsessed with economic growth?

Costs not, to shower respect,

and show to them that they

too, are part of this human race.

How many more IWDs must they celebrate?

(for a society that treats women (and men) with respect and dignity?)

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Heartfelt greetings on this

year’s International Women’s Day.

If only men learn a thing or two

from your repository of emotions,

tears of joy

would have flooded the globe…

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