Bruised, but not Broken (poems)
-Challapalli Swarooparani
20. The Filthy
My mother is an ogre
She neither bathed me fondly
Nor cajolingly fed me
Neither stitched me a silk skirt
Nor braided flowers in my hair.
My mother
Sun-burned, soot-faced
With hands
Eroded in the cleaning.
When other mothers stealthily
Gave their children pocket-money, For asking a rupee she delivered
A noisy good slap on my back
And berated my father.
Our goblin.
If I came home bruised
Dripping blood
Instead of taking me in her arms
And applying medicine
She used to curse god:
‘Oh! My God!
May your eyes turn into mire!’
This witch
Does not revere
Either her husband or God.
My mother is not
‘A mother of love and affection’
She is an ox at the mill
Who does not possess that knowledge Which makes a mother take
A child to her lap and feed it.
Her language has become coarse Listening to the abuse of the entire village.
When I think of my mother
Instead of limbs
The toilet, broom
A plate of cow dung
Come to mind.
The mother, crowned, bejewelled
In a silk sari
Is in no way related to us.
My scavenger mother:
Who cleanses society’s squalor with Her hands
But is abandoned
Like a filthy utensil.
While the needs of the rich
Glitter and glow
Like sacrificial fire
What is this tag of untouchability That dangles round
My mother’s poverty?
(Telugu: “Asuddha”, translated by Prof. G. Sheela Swarupa Rani, Dept. of English, Sri Padmavathi Mahila Viswavidyalayam, and published in Saranga, Web Journal, March, 2018.)
*****
(To be continued-)
Challapalli Swaroopa Rani hails from a village, Pyaparru, Guntur District, Andhra Pradesh. She is one of the five daughters of Mariyamma and Mantraiah. Went to Govt school in her place, completed her college at Guntur, the District head quarters. Then shifted to Hyderabad Central University and involved in student politics as a founder member of Ambedkar Student’s Association. She had her master’s in History & Archaeology, M.Phil in Medieval History and Ph. D in Regional Studies. Swaroopa has obtained Gold Medal in her Masters Examinations. She has got her first recruitment as Asst. Professor in History at Potti Sriramulu Telugu University, Srisailam and got selected as Associate Professor in Buddhist Studies in Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur. She lives in Vijayawada. Presently she is a Professor of Buddhist Studies and Director, Center for Women’s Studies in the same University. She is specialized in studies on Buddhism, Caste, Religion, Gender, Tribal Studies, People’s Culture and Literature.