#WomensDay – Building Love

BUILDING LOVE

I asked my mother

About the wrinkles on her stomach

While I was praying for a flat stomach and acne free skin

She had embraced her ‘post birth’ stomach

‘you were inside, right here’

She said pointing

‘it was our nest’ she said

But I knew how her beautiful nest

Was ripped apart by the doctors

It was a caesarean

The scar would last forever

The nest had been broken

Instead of staying home

She chose to challenge the system

she went back to work

Finding the right thistles and leaves

And now she had built a stronger nest

Our home.

I see the helper who comes to our home

I see her eyes twinkle when she speaks about her children

A single mother

Yet she had built the strongest nest for her children

Going to work

Being a housewife

Having children

Deciding not to and adopting a pet

It didn’t matter

My mother told me

The time has come now

Its 2021

You don’t have to build nests for the family

You build one for yourself

Keep yourself safe and show the world what you hold

Later that day

At work I saw other women

Building their nests while helping the world

Some at NASA and ISRO

Some being entrepreneurs and leaders

Yet always building and building

The nests that will save the world

The nests strong enough to battle prejudice

Women will always be building for a safer world

Resistance is all she knows

The world isn’t a safe place

Yet she chooses to challenge in for change

While being catcalled and given lower wages

Women were always building

the nests ; they were building homes for other women

for the discriminated and the hurt

for the girls and their moms

her nests become an armour against hate

All the hate that will flood

Into her confidence and will

Yet she will #choosetochallenge the hurdles

And she will never stop building her nests

never stop building

Changing the world in every instance

Nandhitha Babuji is a 18-year-old aspiring poet from Tamil Nadu, passionate about using her words to show solidarity against children’s issues.