When I step out after 8,
When I ask my mother for a night party,
When I decide hanging out late, When I book a cab after the sun sets,
When I ask a stranger for help,
I find my hands cuffed and my soul disturbed.
I hesitate, I stop,
and I think a 100 times again,
not of my security,
not of my safety,
but that “AM I INDEPENDENT?”
Every second morning when
I hold up the newspaper to read,
I find a picture that paints a thousand words.
An article screaming out the pain of a girl, who was raped the very last day.
Very often it brings me to tears.
I hesitate, I stop and
I think “AM I INDEPENDENT?”
INDEPENDENCE?
To be able to put my career first,
be as successful as my single mother,
to be able to say ‘NO’ and not be called for it,
to be able to wear what I want to wear,
wear my red lipstick, loud and proud,
to live with no bias,
to be comfortable under my own skin,
never have to have my actions defined by my gender,
to be able to debate, to argue,
to be able to tell my own stories,
to be able to speak my mind,
the freedom to exist in our society
as an inferior individual,
to own my own credit card,
is what defines independence in my terms.
Freedom, for me, is just another word for nothing left to lose in life……