To understand the context please read the post number 116 dated November 24, 2025.

11.

since generations 

my great-great-great and great 

granny, my mother 

my wife and my sister 

have waited and waited 

despised and humiliated 

still no Ananda" has turned up 

to accept water from them

with clenched hands 

and eyes flooded with lavaic tears 

they too joined the movement 

how long 

they could carry a luggage 

full of wounded pride

but they are sure 

one day someone will rise 

like the phoenix 

from the ashes of our defeats 

leaving behind 

our collective sense of helplessness

they are Devis 

they are mothers 

they have patience 

unlike us

(Ananda: In Tagore's dance-drama 'Chandalika' a Chandal girl, the untouchables traditionally associated with the cremation of the dead, is elated when a Buddhist monk, Ananda, accepts water from her)

(From my poetry collection, “Always in Transit”)