I wake from the sleep of centuries
To the scent of Shiuli*,
To the sight of a sparkling day;
I arrive amidst you every year
Lest you forget
The demons that I slay.
I am Rosa Parks.
I refuse to vacate my lawful seat
When the table of life is laid…
I hold my ground; I resist.
I am Harriet Tubman.
‘Conductor’ of black lives
Risking my life for others’ liberty…
I am saviour; I lead.
I am Marie Curie.
I seek knowledge infinite
In the temple of Science…
I am the high priest; I discover.
I am Saint Teresa.
‘Mother’ to every hapless child
Deserted in the streets of the world…
I do God’s will; I serve.
I am Malala Yousafzai.
I brave the bullets of the Taliban
So that girls may go to school…
I claim my right; I speak.
I am Greta Thunberg.
I skip school to demand climate justice
While the world gapes in awe…
I do my sacred duty; I dissent.
I am Seema Samriddhi.
I ignore daily threats to my life
To be the voice of India’s daughters…
The law is my weapon; I fight.
I am the teenaged Jyoti Kumari.
I carried my migrant-labourer father home
On my bicycle, travelling a thousand miles…
The wheels are my wings; I soar.
I am the female foetus you coldly abort;
The daughter who cooks your meal.
I am the mother who gifts you life;
The girl you rape and kill.
I am more than an Autumn goddess;
I am Woman, the eternal She.
I am ‘Shakti,’ who animates the world;
I Was. I Am. And I Shall Be.
* Shiuli – the night-flowering jasmine that blooms in Autumn in India.
Also Read: Autumn Song and Other Poems by Sarojini Naidu
The Song of the Autumn Goddess is a poem that celebrates the annual autumnal invocation of Goddess Durga in different regions of India, specifically in Bengal. In these regions, the worship of the goddess transcends religion and becomes a carnival, inviting participation from all faiths and cultures.
However, Durga in the poem is enfleshed in the bodies of prominent women world leaders, cutting across the temporal and spatial divides: Durga claims identification with strong women in India and abroad but also with the average girl so casually abused, raped, and murdered every day across the world. Against the background of the recent brutal rape and murder of a lady doctor in Kolkata, the poem intends to expose the hollowness of Goddess worship in a society that disrespects women daily.
Anuradha Mazumder is an Assistant Professor of English in Prafulla Chandra College, Kolkata. She likes to juggle her professional responsibilities with her passion for writing; her poetry, essays, and short stories have been published in different literary e-journals like Setu, Muse India, Saaranga-English, and Café Dissensus.