Kakatiya University- UG English - Semester-III
UNIT3: ENDING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
Voice of the unwanted girl: by Sujatha Bhatt.
Mother, I am the one
You sent away
When the Doctor told you
I would be
A girl-in the end they had to
Give me an injection to kill me.
Before I died I heard,
The traffic rushing outside, the monsoon
Slush, The wind sulking through
Your beloved Mumbai-
I could have clutched the neon blue.
No one wanted-
No one wanted
To touch me – except later in
the autopsy room
When they knew my mouth would not
search
For anything – and my head could
be measured.
And bent and cut apart.
I looked like a sliced
pomegranate.
The fruit you never touched.
Mother, I am the one you sent
away.
When the doctor told you
I would be a girl – your second
girl.
Afterwards, as soon as you
could
You put on your grass – green
saree-
The orange stems of the parjatak
blossoms
glistened in your hair.
Afterwards
Everyone smiled.
But now I ask you
To look for me, mother,
Look for me because
I won’t not come to you in your
dreams.
Look for me, mother, look
Because I won’t become a flower
I won’t turn into a butterfly.
And I am not a part of anyone’s song.
Look, mother,
Look for the place where you have
sent me.
Look for the unspeakable.
For the place that can never be
described.
Look for me, mother, because.
This is what you have done.
Look for me, mother, because
This is not ‘God’s will.’
Look for me, mother
Because I smell of
formaldehyde-
I smell of formaldehyde
And still, I wish you would
look
For me, mother.
Summary:
Sujata Bhatt is one of the finest living
poets. In this poem, she has voiced her concern about the gender-bias. In our
society girls are treated as inferior to boys. The birth of a girl is
considered a misfortune. The technique that helps to determine the sex of the
unborn child is used against the girl child. If the expected baby is a girl, it
is destroyed. That is why, the difference between the numbers of boys and girls
is widening day-by-day.
The speaker in the poem is an unwanted
girl who was destroyed before she was born. She is speaking to her mother. The
girl tells her mother how she destroyed her. The doctors told her that the baby
would be a girl. She put on her green sari and went to hospital to have the
child destroyed because the girl was unwanted. The mother already had one daughter.
The doctors gave an injection to kill the girl. The mother did not even care to
look at the girl. After the girl was destroyed everyone was happy.
The murdered girl child asks her to look
for her in vain because she was lost forever. She will not grow up into a
beautiful girl to be admired by someone. She tells her mother that she has
acted against the will of God. God wanted her to live and grow up naturally.
Meaning of the 1st Stanza:
The voice of the unwanted girl is addressed to the mother. The voice of the
unwanted girl questions the mother’s conscience because she did not object
female infanticide. When the doctor told the pregnant mother that a girl child
would be born to her, she instructed the doctor to destroy the female child in
the womb. The infant was killed with the help of injection. This is the
pathetic voice of an unborn girl which haunts the imagination. This is a living
story in the form of poem. This is the incident of Mumbai where there was heavy
traffic and the monsoon set in. The wind is sulking through Mumbai. The poet
realised these things and presented it in her poem.
Meaning of the 2nd Stanza: In
an autopsy, room, the medical examination of – a dead person is carried out to
discover the cause of death. In the autopsy room, the unborn child in the womb
was examined. The doctor knew that the mouth of the unborn child would not
search for anything and her head would be measured and cut apart. No one wanted
to touch the unborn girl. The girl says further that she looks like a sliced
pomegranate. This fruit was never touched by you. She addresses her mother and
says that she is the one she killed her. When the doctor told her that she was
going to bear a girl child. This is the second girl child. Afterwards as soon
as she put on her grass green sari, the orange stems parijatak blossoms and
they are glistening to her hair. This tragedy was happened when the doctor told
the mother that her second child would be a girl.
Meaning of the 3rd Stanza:
Everyone was smiling. But now she asks her mother to look for her. She must
look for her because she would not come to her in her dreams. She again tells
her mother to look for the girl child because she would not become a flower and
she would not turn into a butterfly. And she is not a part of anyone’s songs.
The unwanted girl goes on lamenting the cruel practice of female foeticide. The
unborn girl child was killed not in accordance with Divine Will but because of
social constraints.
Meaning of the 4th
stanza: The unborn female child once again tells her mother to look for her and
look for the place she has sent her. This unspeakable child must be looked for.
She looks for the place that can never be described.
She addresses her mother and look for what she had done. This thing has been
done without the disposal and will of God. The unborn girl was like a gas with
no colour and a strong smell, used mixed with water to preserve things in the
laboratory. The girl wishes to have a look on her and her sin. She again and
again tells her to realise her great mistakes as well as a great crime
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