SEND ME TO HELL: a sonnet

SEND ME TO HELL: a sonnet


God, I do worship at your feet and pray,
A girl not be born to me in next life.
I’ve got only this much, O God, to say,
Send me to hell instead, save me this strife.

A female’s life is steeped too much in woe;
The very day she’s conceived is a curse.
To male ego she often has to bow
And through her life this grievance does she nurse.

Though it’s a trend prevalent everywhere,
The women in the East are more oppressed.
Laws banning female foeticide are there;
In practice, though, they are often transgressed.

I hope one day women freely do live
As equals and be thanked for what they give.




* The first stanza is the translation of the following folk song (in Hindi language, the national language of India) in the North Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state of India, with a population of 166 million. This folk song depicts the harsh reality of female subjugation, reflected in a mother’s prayer to god that he may not give her a daughter in her next life.

प्रभु जी मैं तोरी बिनती करूं, पैय्यां पड़ूं बार बार
अगले जनम मोहे बिटिया न दीजे, नरक दीजे चाहे डार

Prabhu jee main toree binatee karoon, paiyaan padoon baar baar
Agale janam mohe bitiyaa na deeje, narak deeje chaahe Daar

• It was written as entry no. 465080 in the book WOMEN'S AND GENDER ISSUES, "Invalid Item" . I decided to post it as an independent item on 6 June 2007 after getting the following 5 star rating and review for the book entry:

“The writing is both heart and mind blowing. The eyes get filled with tears while reading it. The true emotions of a suffering woman's and her guardians’ suffering mind have been shown like a picture. My eyes got filled with tears while reading through it. But irony is that how many people do something not to make women the victim of these sufferings?”


M C Gupta
29 October 2006