Woman with No Gold
POETRY FORMAT, 30 Jul 2012
Sumeet Grover – TRANSCEND Media Service
For the Poverty-Stricken Women in India Who Work as Domestic Maids
Another summer afternoon
under furnace sky
roads, mud, golden grass, dead air
dull in pinching heat that pierces skin,
saps water and more,
nature’s laws of balance
most get by, sitting on cold marble floors,
air conditioned living rooms
although for her yet another afternoon.
she walks out of a house, tall black gates
her dark skin covering bones, veins ornaments, keenly seeks
furnace yellow’s unconditional love
long day, second round, fourth house
dishes were clean and floors mopped
letting them walk bare foot,
cook food for clean dinner plates.
she is woman with destiny, inhabitant of asbestos
and steel structures where children run on streets,
cars scooters bicycles are skyscraper dreams.
A maid, veins etched under skin testify her fate,
as do her ‘small breasts’ as group of boys whisper each other under Neem,
keenly experimenting their growing instincts.
she walks back home
in hundred-rupee pink suit orange scarf
bought from Friday bazaar, roadside sellers away from malls
fantasy for her, filth for others;
meets friends on broken pavement, gossips and giggles,
destiny for a moment disappears.
perhaps there is no such thing as destiny for her
she is free to laugh to meet to share to speak
unlike women she works for;
women with gold bangles and inherited necklaces
locked in generations of promise of family pride and dignity
house arrested by honour.
________________________
Sumeet Grover:
– Member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment and of the TRANSCEND Art & Peace Network
– Coordinator of Global Poetry
– A software engineer originally from India, based in the UK.
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 30 Jul 2012.
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I think that the discussion on the above poem should be divided into two completely different cases. Both cases, at a glance on the surface, are similar, but the implications/meanings are completely different.
The first case is that described in the above poem. The woman as in the above poem is in a tragedy, not because she is performing the domestic chores but because she is, de fact, forced to do so. She has no choice.
Another case is that can be seen, for example, in Zen Buddhism. There is a tendency (but not necessarily always or at all the Zen temples though) in Zen Buddhism that a high ranking priest tends to perform domestic chores of his temple. Domestic chores are considered as one of the most important (spiritual) trainings in Zen Buddhism. When Dogen was young and visiting a Chinese Zen temple, he saw an old respected priest preoccupied with domestic chores for his temple. (For Dogen, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C5%8Dgen) Dogen asked why such a high ranking priest should work for the domestic chores. The old priest laughed and said, “You do not understand this indispensable spiritual training. You have just looked at the surface of this work and you think that you can properly judge its essential nature.”
The point here is whether the choice is given to the person or not. While former (i.e. the woman described in the above poem) has no choice because the woman in the poem is actually forced to perform the domestic chores for her household (or for her master), the latter has a choice. That is, only when the priest understands the spiritual meaning hidden in the domestic chores, he can perform the chores. When there is no choice for the person, the work is nothing but a tragedy. Compare: (1) Slaves, “carrying heavy baggage” for their masters and (2) voluntary humanitarian aid workers, “carrying heavy baggage” for handicapped children.