Women Of Substance 01 - The Mother Poem by Unnikrishnan Sivasankara Menon
Women Of Substance 01 - The Mother
In Odisha, India
A mother
Snehalata Baral
Battles with fate to raise
Her ‘intersex' baby.
Yes, India
Where sexually different
Children are abandoned
As outcasts by families,
Even by the rich.
Snehalata
Is a poor uneducated
Village girl
With no income of her own.
After her child was born intersex
Her husband and his family
Asked her to abandon the child.
She refused, obviously,
She is the mother.
Her husband and in-laws
Abandoned her
And her child.
At the behest of authorities,
Her husband ‘agreed'
to take them back.
But she refused, sure,
he will not accept her child.
She decided to raise her child
As a single parent instead.
Let us celebrate the grit, the resolve and the elevated motherhood of Ms. Snehalata Baral
To my readers, I request to read my poems (1] A Woman's Body' to which this poem can be considered as a sequel and (2) ‘Neither' Which may be considered as a sequel to this poem. Thanks to all.
We now know that Snehalata is the only synonym for motherhood
I had posted a note in reply to LeeAnn's comment. But, my note has disappeared. What happened, dear ph?
wow I didn't know this until I read this poem My g-d what awful way
The sexually different persons are, to this day, an ILLEGAL SOCIETY in India, except for definitely, Kerala, where the educationally elevated society accepts them without reservations.
This is where we need to appreciate Snehalata and her stand.
It is still a paternal, male dominated society. So the woman can not defy the dictums of the males in the family or even the society. It demands immense courage to do so.
The Indian woman lacks in education, financial stability, earning capacity and employability. So she is totally dependent on her male counterparts: husband or parents.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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8/3/2025 7:07:18 PM # 1.0.0
To the government officials who visited her, Snehalata prayed for a job that pays just enough to take care of her child.