[Translation] Spaceless (Be.jagah)

“Forgotten for ever are they,
once they fall from their place,
Hair, Women and Nails.”
So explained our Sanskrit Teacher,
the essence of a Shloka,
and scared, we girls,
got riveted onto our seats.

Space? What is space?
Its meaning clear to us
in our first grade itself
We remember each word
of those early lessons

“Ram, go to the school!”
“Radha, prepare dinner!”
“Ram, have one more bite!”
“Radha, sweep the floor!”
“Your brother is feeling sleepy,
go, prepare his bed!”

Wow, our new house!
“Ram, this is your room!”
“And, mine?”
“Are you insane?
Girls, Winds and Sunlight are like sand,
they have no abode to call their own!”

Where, in what space, what slot, are they,
those who don’t have an abode?
Where is that space, by losing which,
I would become a woman?
Like nail-bits,
like hair strands on a comb,
to be peeled off and thrown away?

A house, left behind
An abode, left behind
left behind are the people I loved
But, some questions followed me
Now, I have left behind them too

Left behind are some spaces

But, never ever did I feel
Like being stuck in a nail-cutter
or dangling loosely in a comb

De-hors my culture, I feel
like a small couplet
extracted from a timeless Classic
and sprinkled on the question paper of B.A. Pass Course
-yet wary of anyone analyzing or answering me.

Beyond each hurdle
with much effort have I flapped my wings
So what if they read me
like Tukaram’s unfinished prose?

A poem in Hindi titled “Be.jagah” by Anamika
Translation by Vijay © 30th March, 2006