Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
Priya Devi May 2015
First things first
I'd like to apologise

I'm sorry I'm not the good Indian girl I was bred to be
I'm sorry I don't make round rotis
I'm sorry that the tongue I use to speak punjabi is broken and hides in my mouth unused until desperately needed
I'm sorry that I don't cook and clean efficiently enough to be wifey material
Sorry that I love who I love and don't hate who I was told to
Sorry that I can't follow gods blindly and not try to sneak back stage to see their shining gold adornments and blue body paints and multiple arms in full and bare glory and scandal

I'm sorry that I'm actually not sorry for any of this
I'm sorry that these are false and empty apologies

I am unapologetically whole
A human not just a race
A female not a trust fund or business transaction

I filter out the good parts of the culture I'm from and the ones I identify with
I'll wear docs under my saari no apologies
I'll grind on dancefloors and do the best Bhangra dance you'll ever see unashamedly

Hareems and hoodies
Bindies and pin up eyeliner
Hedonism and head in the clouds

My ambition is Ambedkar untouchable
My drive is a salt march surging silently non violently through cities
My hometown pride is built in concrete and rickshaw dust,
Prejudice and Bollywood lust
More of a rant than a poem
Jomini Feb 2013
Big netted leaves falling from tall Saag trees,
Walking  with me  on a curvy road,
Slowly disappearing into the hills,
Cool breeze and the bluebird that sing along,
The bells in a cow's neck grazing by,
A black korku kid dancing on its tunes,
His mother washing clothes on the river,
As the water played with little white stones,
The lush green wheat fields spreading across horizons,
And the yellowish huts below the blue skies,
An old man calls me and offers some rotis,
No ,Thank you Sir, But I've got miles to cover,
Till I meet the chilly cold night !
Amtul Hajra Sep 2020
When you sit swinging at every blink of my eyes.
The dark circles under sing the setting moon lullabies.
Free shadows of spring sunlight, and whispers in the corridors.
” I wish to never be alone”, says the Gardener in his mother tongue.
He pulls up hope in a tin can pouring over new buds, his whistles add sweetness to my ears.
that Mynah that sits under the banyan tree, sits on it today.
And sparrows picking at raw berries, flutter as I near them.
Wet grass pins at my feet, random flowers that mysteriously grew; falling from the paradise.
Here’s to my very own forest of life & death.
For I have failed many friends, those which never came back.
Though I waited, and I wait.
The woman in my house, with rags for clothes, dead faith that lives in the cracks of her lips.
And when she walks, her bunch of keys rattle her bottle of liquor she considers hidden. Her hands that pet rotis and light stoves, escape destiny and destroy hope.
Olive shaded walls of my home, frequently fall short of peace.
The ringing of bells from the latest exhibit, the tv making up for all those who were once before.
I raise the volume from 45 to 80,
All sorts of sacred prayers surround my very being.
I devour my pancakes and drain down coffee like religion itself.
shattered chandeliers bring me patterns of floating aspirations.
Sofa’s hold me any way I Can sit, while I forge some sleep, and fool my mind.
Rested i am not.
Empty i am.
My walls are so high, i only feel free at the top.
And sometimes think I’d like to fall.
when the waters from the shore mumble to me, “don’t fall for the charades.”
I stay put and cherish all the beauty.
At least, that’s what I think it is.
A passing wind slips from my hands, parting from every inch of my spine.
I plead, “take my heart with you.”
And so,
my heart beats in my rib cage,
But never at peace or in one place.
Puspanjali Sahu Jun 2016
Remember those days
Remember those moments
Sometimes with love
Sometimes with fake anger
Sometimes with a expression of begging
and sometimes with an attitude of praying

You asked me
to learn
to make rotis
round roties
round like the earth or may be like the universe  

Dear Maa,
each time  
I avoided your words
Neglected your quests
Ignored your feelings
Shattered your expectations  
I thought I was crossing your imagination
that somewhere prisoned
with relations  

I thought  Roties can be made easily
They are combination of flour and water
I only need to be right about proportion  

But why didn’t you tell me
Round roties require much more than my prediction
They need balanced emotions
Heartfelt validation
Justified devotion
to each and every relation  
Now  
As I started
wearing  your age,
it comes to my realization
round rotis  
may take everything you earned
your sleep, your dream  your successful imagination,
even little strength left in your bones  

But
what they return
is
a smiling satisfaction
When your mother  teaches you little things, may be preparing a meal, she inserts confidence, creativity inside you. When she made you to prepare meals for others she enriches you with feeling. you learned to love. When you allow yourself to serve a meal to your family members or friends you learned to care.  
And when you received all these feeling as your inheritance I doubt  Is there anything in this world that can irritate you…work load, failure in achieving professional goals, politics in your work place. Is there really anything?
I wish I should have learned make a rotis.

n.b. Maa is the hindi term to address mother. Roti is a indian food and used as a symbol for each small things you learn at home
Rollercoaster Jan 2021
I took the vehicle to your house.
I didn’t meet you when you died.
But I know you wouldn’t have recognized me.
Your vision failing you,
and I’m hoping your heart hadn’t given out.
You drank tea before you slept
and asked the rotis to be kept for dinner.
I long for your voice,
I am scared that I'll forget how you sounded.
I cannot imagine how it would have felt.
I am terrified if I imagine your last breaths.
I received the call announcing you had "expired".
My reality did too.
Rest in peace, badi dadi ji.

— The End —