⁠Stop. Stop. Stop.
Don’t laugh out loud;
Girl! Don’t show your legs,
while walking in the crowd.

Lengthen your skirt,
And cut short your dreams;
Your man will understand you,
If only, you start using those skin brightening creams.

Hey you!!
Learn to cook, clean, stitch and sing;
It’s the eligibility criteria,
For passing the entrance test for the wedding ring.

Startled I stopped, stared back and asked,
Who are you to tell me all these tricks?
It replied: ‘I’m the society, who keep things fixed.’

“A society”
I thought for a while and then began to ask;
‘Are you the one, who cut throats of many dreams wearing a friendly mask?’

‘Are you the one, limiting our imagination?’
‘Are you the one making us emotionally vulnerable, over the generations?’

‘A woman cannot shout,
A man cannot cry;
You stopped us from hugging humanity,
And made us buy all your lies.’

Chagrined by the revelation of itself,
Trying to keep a hold on me,
it clutched me in its arms;
It pleaded me not to cross it’s territory,
as it would lessen it’s charm.

Tired of manipulating me for long,
Finally it yell;
‘If you leave me now,
I’ll make sure, that in the lake of regrets you’ll dwell’;
‘You would be lost and what to coming generations you gonna tell?’
In one jerk I freed myself from its arms, and said,
‘Just like me,
I’ll tell them to be a born Rebel’

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