Lincoln’s Letter To An Indian Guru, Political, Spiritual or Otherwise

You will have to learn - high time - that women do not exist to be 

mother/sister/daughter/wife,

Or any other avatar in 3D 

that your limited male mind might conceive.

Know that they are not property nor chattel,

Their existence isn’t beholden to you -

They will not call any scoundrel ‘Bhaiya’,

Nor uphold the family izzat or Bharatiye values.

You have been a bully too long, cloaking

Your misogyny in ancient epics and spiritual texts -

When five husbands set up their wife for raping

You contrive the vastraharan as a morality pretext.

You will have to learn to stop preferring sons,

The ‘extra men’ you’re generating - 15 million today,

Have illustrated their full-blown demons

In a bus on 16 December that terrible Sunday.

Know that the women of India will not stop,

They will step out of their homes, and seek

An education, a job, a boyfriend as laxmanrekhas they cross,

Dented-painted, they will never be weak.

It is time you shed your hypocrisy,

Realize: none’s taken in by your India v/s Bharat story - 

Mohan Bhagwat, shed your duplicity,

Hairy legs in khakhi shorts affront public decency.

Know that the women of India are learning to think.

Of low birth, the Bhagavad Gita declares them,

In the same category as shudras, it consigns them.

Yet, one-half of 1.2 billion, is a difficult number to shrink.

In the home and outside, the women of India,

Will challenge texts and tell their own stories, identify

new role models - Mahasweta Devi, Ambai, Laxmi Bai...

Who needs male heroes when you have the brave Draupadi?  

This is a big order, but see what you can do.

Guru of India, time you learnt or went under!

©Manreet Sodhi Someshwar