Voice of the Unwanted Girl- by Sujatha Bhatt ( Poem and Summary)

Voice of the Unwanted Girl : Sujata Bhatt is one of the finest living poets. In this poem, she has voiced her concern about the gender-bias. In our society girls are treated as inferior to boys.

Voice of the Unwanted Girl:  by Sujatha Bhatt.

Mother, I am the one

You sent away

When the Doctor told you

I would be

A girl-in the end they had to

Give me an injection to kill me.

Before I died I heard,

The traffic rushing outside, the monsoon

Slush, The wind sulking through

Your beloved Mumbai-

I could have clutched the neon blue.

 

No one wanted-

No one wanted

To touch me – except later in the autopsy room

When they knew my mouth would not search

For anything – and my head could be measured.

And bent and cut apart.

I looked like a sliced pomegranate.

The fruit you never touched.

Mother, I am the one you sent away.

When the doctor told you

I would be a girl – your second girl.

Afterwards, as soon as you could

You put on your grass – green saree-

The orange stems of the parjatak blossoms

glistened in your hair.

 

Afterwards

Everyone smiled.

But now I ask you

To look for me, mother,

Look for me because

I won’t not come to you in your dreams.

Look for me, mother, look

Because I won’t become a flower

I won’t turn into a butterfly.

And I am not a part of anyone’s song.

Look, mother,

Look for the place where you have sent me.

Look for the unspeakable.

For the place that can never be described.

Look for me, mother, because.

This is what you have done.

Look for me, mother, because

This is not ‘God’s will.’

Look for me, mother

Because I smell of formaldehyde-

I smell of formaldehyde

And still, I wish you would look

For me, mother.

Summary: Voice of the Unwanted Girl

Sujata Bhatt is one of the finest living poets. In this poem, she has voiced her concern about the gender-bias. In our society girls are treated as inferior to boys. The birth of a girl is considered a misfortune. The technique that helps to determine the sex of the unborn child is used against the girl child. If the expected baby is a girl, it is destroyed. That is why, the difference between the numbers of boys and girls is widening day-by-day.

The speaker in the poem is an unwanted girl who was destroyed before she was born. She is speaking to her mother. The girl tells her mother how she destroyed her. The doctors told her that the baby would be a girl. She put on her green sari and went to hospital to have the child destroyed because the girl was unwanted. The mother already had one daughter. The doctors gave an injection to kill the girl. The mother did not even care to look at the girl. After the girl was destroyed everyone was happy.

The murdered girl child asks her to look for her in vain because she was lost forever. She will not grow up into a beautiful girl to be admired by someone. She tells her mother that she has acted against the will of God. God wanted her to live and grow up naturally.

Meaning of the 1^st Stanza: Voice of the Unwanted Girl

The voice of the unwanted girl is addressed to the mother. The voice of the unwanted girl questions the mother’s conscience because she did not object female infanticide. When the doctor told the pregnant mother that a girl child would be born to her, she instructed the doctor to destroy the female child in the womb. The infant was killed with the help of injection. This is the pathetic voice of an unborn girl which haunts the imagination. This is a living story in the form of poem. This is the incident of Mumbai where there was heavy traffic and the monsoon set in. The wind is sulking through Mumbai. The poet realised these things and presented it in her poem.

Meaning of the 2^nd Stanza: Voice of the Unwanted Girl

In an autopsy, room, the medical examination of – a dead person is carried out to discover the cause of death. In the autopsy room, the unborn child in the womb was examined. The doctor knew that the mouth of the unborn child would not search for anything and her head would be measured and cut apart. No one wanted to touch the unborn girl. The girl says further that she looks like a sliced pomegranate. This fruit was never touched by you. She addresses her mother and says that she is the one she killed her. When the doctor told her that she was going to bear a girl child. This is the second girl child. Afterwards as soon as she put on her grass green sari, the orange stems parijatak blossoms and they are glistening to her hair. This tragedy was happened when the doctor told the mother that her second child would be a girl.

Meaning of the 3^rd Stanza: Voice of the Unwanted Girl

Everyone was smiling. But now she asks her mother to look for her. She must look for her because she would not come to her in her dreams. She again tells her mother to look for the girl child because she would not become a flower and she would not turn into a butterfly. And she is not a part of anyone’s songs. The unwanted girl goes on lamenting the cruel practice of female foeticide. The unborn girl child was killed not in accordance with Divine Will but because of social constraints.

Meaning of the 4^th stanza: Voice of the Unwanted Girl

The unborn female child once again tells her mother to look for her and look for the place she has sent her. This unspeakable child must be looked for. She looks for the place that can never be described.

She addresses her mother and look for what she had done. This thing has been done without the disposal and will of God. The unborn girl was like a gas with no colour and a strong smell, used mixed with water to preserve things in the laboratory. The girl wishes to have a look on her and her sin. She again and again tells her to realise her great mistakes as well as a great crime

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