Benaam Rishta:An Invisible String

Chapter19

He forgot his track of speech. Suddenly its all motivational dialogue seemed futile as the harsh reality of his motherland, the garbage problems of the patriarchal society made their entry in his mind. closing eyelashes, took a deep breath to compose himself.

"What is freedom?" His strident question was no match with his blank expression. everyone became attentive towards him as he proceeded "What is this freedom, we gathered here to celebrate? What's the actual meaning of it? behind it? Do we really know? Realised? What actually freedom is......????"

Somewhere In the crowd, A forty-two year old woman appeared with a birdcage and a new born baby , draping herself in a simple Saari and full sleeve blouse. Hair was folded in a tight bun. just a watch was tied on her wrist. still In such a simple attire she was looking like a celestial goddess. the sparkle in her eyes bespoke her purity, her righteous, prowess nature. Everyone bowed her respectfully As she walked through the crowd and stood infront of thousands of people, most were women. She looked upwards to admire the freedom symbolism flying tri-rangana and  slowly looked down to the birdcage and newly born infant. Her moist orbs were filling her already wet cheeks with uncontrollably flowing salty shred which have broken every boundaries just as the power struggle of several crores together broke forceful-boundaries on the auspicious day. The red puffed welled up eyes were just melting the happiness of victory and liberty with the ocean of unsaid emotions.

She opened the birdcage and freed the bird from the cage and let her to fly freely in the sky, to soar the sky freely, higher as its own wishes and go back to its nest without any shackles. Her quivering lips curved into a complacent smile as breathed heavily "Freedom....freedom is the breath of life. Freedom is being free like a bird. Having the rights from the moment we born till death to do whatever we want. It's having the liberty to enjoy our life as our wish..."She chuckled at the cute baby in her hands. the baby, which born freely but wouldn't be free in true sense, she realised observing those thousands of people infront of her. Chuckling painfully, plastered a smile, continued..

"Well, freedom isn't as simple as it heard. It's not something can be touched, smelled or hear. Neither it is mere matter of political decision or new constitutions.... it's all of the mind and heart. A life without freedom is like a body without spirits. Freedom is like the open window through which pours the sunlight of human spirit and dig...dignity........" A lone drop of tears rolled down her cheeks. she took pause to shallow the lump formed in throat. taking a deep breath, she continued further "Freedom is the most precious gift of God to each individual. An intrinsic and basic rights of human being since their introduction to the world........"

"But....does everyone get that freedom.....in true sense...??" He inquired again but no one was in a state to answer. They were at lost of words to hear him. "Do we really have that rights???"

"Obviously we have..." She smiled slightly to see their reactions and voiced again " all human being get this as birth-right. But it's only human who tries to snatch away freedom of other when pride overpower them. See, till yesterday, our country was ruled by foreigners. Foreigners ruled and citizens enslaved. But today our country is free and according to politics, this is the freedom........"

"Maybe yes. But...."He looked towards those man and shot furious glare recalling their act. Peculiar emotions enveloped his countenance as He spoke the sadistic truth of the society " But in actual sense, women of our country is deprived of that freedom.....till now. Liberty, which is considered as birth rights, every individual borns with....that rights snatches away from women, in every aspect the moment they come to this world. This liberty....turn into captivity for women even without their knowledge. And that's not done by any foreigners but by their own, own men. By this patriarchal society. Foreigners prevented our country from progressing but sole reason behind the downturn of our country is illiteracy, gender discrimination , male dominated society, evil practices and heinous mindsets of people who restricts women from growing, dreaming, flying, even live a life of her own way. Ruling our country Britishers showed themselves superior but the most pathetic truth is men of our country disrespect women , oppress them, rule over women....just to show themselves powerful, supercilious and for their false manly ego" He tried to but couldn't control voice from getting louder. "on the one hand, we worship Durga as the goddess of strength and prowess but on the other hand, think of women as weak. Even after considering Saraswati as the goddess of knowledge and education, we snatch that rights from women. Lakshmi is worshiped in every house as the goddess of success, wealth and fortune but the Lakshmi of one's home is treated like an object...just like a mere object to use and throw away. So before showing your fake love, respect towards motherland or goddess....learn how to respect our real goddesses. Like our motherland, release women from your tyrannical shackles. give back their rights...give them liberty....only then our motherland will get freedom in full, real sense......."