Woman: The Other Depiction

By Barsha Priyadarshini

In the earliest years of learning to depict and draw

I made a sketch once,

A series of random pencil traces

It roughly looked like a human,

A pretty face

A crown with long hair

A bindi midway the brows

A body draped in saree

A neck adorned with gold

Her wrists filled with bangles

A pair of jhumkas hung from the ears

She was a lady, indeed.

Years later I saw many like her

Each one was confined with variations

I was wrong

There was a difference in my depiction.

She still had a pretty face

But her hair was cut short

She had no bindi now

She wore a shirt tucked in jeans

She had no ornaments on

Her wrist wore a watch

Depicting the variation in time

Who was She?

She was a lady, indeed.

Free from those traces of depictions

A lady who choosed what she loved.

By Barsha Priyadarshini