By Amitabh Vikram

I was born as a human.
But defined as a woman.
Actually, I was same as others,
And never was man’s other.
Culture somewhere conspired it seems,
And marginalized me as
The other half.
Literature too supported this scheme,
And glorified my existence as a mystery.
It faked to solve my existence:
Sometimes how I think and talk
At times how I look and walk.
An upshot soon summed up the verdict:
That woman is an unsolved mystery.
The other indicators soon began to disappear.
I was no more human and woman.
But only considered as
The mysterious other half.

* * *

AMITABH VIKRAM DWIVEDI is university faculty and assistant professor of linguistics at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, India; and author of two books on lesser known Indian languages: A Grammar of Hadoti and A Grammar of Bhadarwahi.

As a poet, he has published around fifty poems in different anthologies, journals, and magazines worldwide. Until recently, his poem “Mother” has included as a prologue to Motherhood and War: International Perspectives (Eds.), Palgrave Macmillan Press. 2014.