The Bride's Woe

Ah! The day has come
When she has to leave,
It’s here so soon
She can’t believe.

It seems like only yesterday
When she had turned twenty,
But now, her time left at home
Doesn’t seem plenty.

In a flash, come all
The sweet memories of her past,
She smiles, she laughs, she cries at them
For her, forever will they last.

When she was in pain, her mother comforted her,
When her self was dwindling, her father supported her,
Her brother whose shouts and fights she had to bear,
Even in his eyes today, she can see tears.

No longer is she free
To walk and talk the way she wants,
Even though her in-laws seem friendly,
These thoughts linger and haunt.

“ She’s not too fair and a bit too fat!”
“Don’t you know how to do it? It’s done like that!”
“Sit like this, don’t stand like that!”
The thought of hearing these in the future makes her sad.

She sits in front of the mirror and stares,
At her nubile and naïve appearance.
“Don’t worry you can do it,” echoes her mind,
Thus assured of the future, she gathers her confidence and endurance.

At last, beautiful and graceful she joins her groom,
And they steadfastly take vows together.
Entwining in the eternal bond of love,
They are pronounced husband and wife, forever!

Now comes the saddest part
As now, she has to depart
After bidding goodbye to parents, family and friends,
She now brings all rites and rituals to an end.

She flings back ‘wet’ grains of rice from the doorstep,
Behind her, where her parents collect them
Thus symbolically breaking all ties with her family,
With moist eyes, she leaves them.

Then the day comes when she achieves the fruit of her labor:
Today is the day, her first child, a girl, arrives.
Reminded of her own sad departure on that fateful day,
Overwhelmed, she hugs the child lovingly, with tears in her eyes.