Indian Love/ to be a woman in India

The magic of India is a mosaic of vividness, beautifully garnished outfits decorate both women and men. They are woven with meanings, containing an information code but above all India is a country of contrasts. Liberated love and romantic Bollywood movies versus a reality that looks entirely different, 99% of Indian marriages are arranged, and there is no space for love and trust. This all is perfectly depicted in the book “Mridula” written by Sreekala P. Vijayan.

Sreekala P. Vijayan is a prolific poet, author, newscaster, and reviewer. She believes that consistent interactions keeping aside geographic borders, help a poet to be experimental with lessons of life. She is an internationally known author and many poems of her have been published in international anthologies and literary magazines. She hails from Palakkad, Kerala: the southern part of India. She is an academician by profession and has groomed many talents in her students. Having specialized in school psychology and administration, her poems are apt for an intimate reading and relatable to the common human values seen around. They resonate with amusement, wisdom, and precision. Her ink preference surrounds the varied aspects of poetic art such as environment, nature, pleasure, love, hope, memories, uprising, and many more. Her versatility has no limitation to exploring and unwinding in the poetic world. She is also an author of  “Soul in Whole” and “Amorous Musings”.

Sreekala has won several significant awards, such as:

Order of Shakespeare Medal from Motivational Strips 2021

Golden badge from Gujarat Sahitya Academy and Motivational Strips

Prashasti Patra from Gujarat Sahitya Academy and

Motivational Strips on 75th the Independence day of India.

Ceasar Vallejo from Union Hispanomundial De Escritores 2021

Literary Captain Story Mirror.

Sreekala once again showed her literary dexterity, the book  “Mridula” is a collection of poems that creates a history of an Indian woman who does not have an easy life in Indian society. The troubles of Indian women begin the moment they are born, a girl is a non-returnable investment, so many parents prefer to get rid of them and the female fetus and the female newborn are killed. The author describes this problem wonderfully in one of her poems in sequence 26:

THE BABY GIRL

Did the baby bud’s heavenly smile extirpate the past

distances between her parent?

Mridula felt that the baby is a glue to stick together the lost

days of joy, which in past was apparent.

A new triangular love emerged, as an elixir, in the

sophisticated circumstance,

Mridula marked the newborn glory as life’s new

acceptance.

The rabbit smile and the tender footsteps seems to bring

the detached family closer,

But it turned out that, for the upcoming situations, and

consequences, it was another teaser.

Female newborns are seen by relatives, as a sin,

For them, the male domination always seems to be a win

Pathetic are those fantasy customs and traditions,

It’s time they all change thoughts and create new

reactions.

Curses, words spoken with venom and filled with arrows

of unhealthy customs, are still Mridula’s daily appetizer.

When will relief come to her in the form of a magical

sarcasm sanitizer?

We are humans made of stuff more understanding,

It’s time we move forward as productively enterprising.

To understand someone better, they have to be in that

person’s shoes,

Then only, they could understand his or her woes.

Mridula wished the germs of outdated customs from lives

around, to erase,

She wished the humanitarian curtain-raiser to open, and

put life at ease.

The parents remained cornered, even after the moment of

new birth in the family,

Being born as a woman is not seen as a pennyworth, but

just a presence silly.

Baby born as a girl isn’t an uninvited curse,

There are many girls who today work professionally with a

heavier purse.

No male egoism can see them as a shooting target,

You better grip that arrogance away or forever forget.

We are the creators of new lives on this earth,

We can make and destroy your luxury and send you away

as zero worth

Being the author of Mridula’s sequence, let me relay these

few thoughts

These are some reasons for pain that every woman today

carries around in lots.

Being a poet to society, I can’t be judgemental to

unknown notions,

but awareness of society should be about these custom

made superstitions.

What is so special about a baby boy born?

He is still the same breathing human-like a baby girl and

doesn’t possess an extra horn.

Mridula hated such fake and merciless tradition,

She feels males and females are equally responsible for wiser

human constitution.

Today we feel answerable for female foeticide, rampantly

seen around,

What nonsense are we carrying everywhere abound?

Allow every gender’s heart to speak,

Remember that females are strong, and never weak.

These was Mridula’s thoughts after a new birth of herself

through her child,

She was rational and thoughtfully wise of traditional

sins, useless and wild.

A woman in a marriage, especially in an orthodox family, in fact, has no rights and on the day she gets married she becomes the property of her husband and his family, taking away her voice, she is expected to obey. Mridula’s story magnificently reflects the plight of women in India, but this does not mean that these women are weak, actually, these women are very diehard and strong. Often humiliated and suppressed, they can fight for themselves and strive to achieve their goals. Sreekala P. Vijayan showed us all this brilliantly in her latest book, which is worth reading.

Ewelina Maria Bugajska – Javorka

01.07.2022 Stockholm