Sita’s Housing Society (Poetry)

How do we learn what is okay and what is not? This chilling poem explores the roots of domestic violence.

Flat No 101

Father hits mother

Mother stays silent

Goes back to kitchen

And cooks silently

Ram is 4

He watches it all,

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Hits his doll.

The doll stays silent.

Ram learns his first circle of wrong lessons,

Violence is okay.

Flat No 102

Maria is 14,

Her boyfriend pushed her over a fight

Everyone told her-

He loves you hard, so he hurt

Its okay

Maria stays silent

Violence is okay.

Flat no 103

Sapna screamed at night

Her live in partner hit her one more time.

Everyone smiled –

She deserved it.

She is a slut.

She lived with a man without a knot tied.

For a SLUT,

Violence is okay.

Flat no 104

His friends were watching the IPL match.

He hit his wife with a rod,

For the food was not piping hot.

Everyone heard but kept quite.

It’s “Ghar Ki Baat.”

So, when it is ghar ki baat,

Violence is okay.

The Building

The building heard the screams and the cries everyday,

But acted as if nothing happened the very next day.

Just like Dhitarastra, Gandhari and Karna, everyone knew to look down, without a frown.

In Sita’s building too, just like Doryadhana, everyone knew one lesson,

That violence, when against women, is always okay!

Top image via Graphicstock

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