Of Feminism And Motherhood Poem by Gayathri Seetharam

Of feminism and motherhood
-Gayathri B. Seetharam
I baked a small heart shaped cake made of hazelnuts and honey last evening
And made a chocolate icing with a matcha green tea-chocolate bow
This was to my 21 year old son so he recollects his own childhood
And my working days as his harried mother
Somehow, he did not seem to be in a good mood and did not eat even a thin slice
I did justice to the delicious cake which is my own concocted recipe
And it struck me that the single most defining moment of my life with ambition was myself being a new mom
And graduating with an M.A.Sc in chemical engineering after a bachelor's and an M.Eng in the same;

There are other special moments which are most memorable
And which defined me as the woman I am today
Like key most moments with my family and friends and alone as an individual
I also answer to the definition of me as a wife and mother and an engineer-writer-artist-poet
And I suppose, musing along the lines of motherhood depicted in books and movies,
That Mark Twain's quote: The east is east and the west is west and never shall the t'wain meet,
Comes to my mind;

If the sun rises in the east, it sets in the west
My point being that they need each other
But have you noticed that since the feminism movement started in the USA and Canada,
And has reached its pinnacle of achievement here,
It may very well be that the women have been inspired by literary heroines
Like Anna Karanin and Scarlett O'Hara who are romantic heroines as mothers
And real life heroines as Madame Marie Curie who had a wonderful husband and equally successful children;

The two literary heroines I have quoted are not trapped by the emotion of motherhood
But the fathers are in both the cases
I thought of Sophie's Choice, both the book and the movie which has the punchline
And moment of truth in that the heroine talks about her children
And it moves the viewer or reader into tears
But there are no children in the movie other than in that scene;

Originating from an Indian background but having been Canadian from a long time back,
I shall quote the names of two Hindi movies which revolve around a mother and son,
The first is Mother India where the single mother kills her second son for he has become a criminal
And the second is Deewar (Door)where the younger brother who is a cop kills the older brother
Who has turned into a criminal and who has been disowned by his mother
But who happily dies in his mother's arms in front of God,
The point I would like to make is that these are old movies
But I don't know if the trend continues in Bollywood and Bangalore Filmland;

The western man is a different man
For he has been conquered and feminism has become a force
There is PM Justin Trudeau who has a gender parity cabinet
And even the controversial Pres. Donald Trump whose daughter works with him
While his sons don't
And feminism being a force could be because certain emotions and obligations
Do not weigh down heavily on women;

Speaking in favour of both cultures,
There are wonderful western mothers
And equally wonderful eastern feminist women in the workforce
And I am reminded of a bird's nest in our maple tree
Which is still around in winter despite the fact
That there are no leaves on the maple tree
And I think that I should build a nest egg for myself
And feminism with a background of motherhood
Should let me do so.