Oh Maa! Me Aarohi! Can you hear my voice? I often scream in your womb. Do you hear me? Dadi Maa blessed you for a baby boy, I know! I often hear Papa persuading you for an ultrasound check-up. I will be your fourth girl child. I know, you are under stress from our society for my brother. I don’t care what they think. What do you think, Maa? Do you hear me, Maa?
Do you also believe Maa that your life will be incomplete without a baby boy? Can’t I make your life full? I can counter those voices. I have the power but they cannot hear me right now. But you can hear, Maa. Can’t you?
I have a lot of dreams for our lives. Don’t raise me like a girl. Raise me like a human. Give me a chance to be human, Maa. Don’t make me a women. I don’t need to be a women. Let me be myself, Maa. Let me fly!
Tell papa that he won’t need to be worried for my safety. Give me good food, teach me to stand for myself. I will defend myself. I will protect my freedom, my choices, Maa.
Please don’t save for my marriage, Maa. I don’t want you to take any financial burden for me. Let me study well, let me play. Let me see dreams, let me be myself. Would you, Maa?
Teach me to make choices. Teach me good values. But then trust me, Maa. I would let you know when I love someone. Would you believe in me, Maa? Do you hear me? Please don’t pay money to a boy to take me away from you. Don’t sell me to a marriage broker of Dowry market, oh Maa.
When I grow up, let me goto market. Let me open my bank account. Let me sing, let me dance. Let me make rockets, let me cook food. Let me work outside, let me run my company. In the worries of my safety, would you also kill my freedom, Maa? Would you also imprison me, Maa?
If I move out with my companion, don’t think ever that I’m not yours. I will always be yours, my dear Maa. Please don’t stop me when I do care for you, buy us a home and earn a bread for us. Don’t think that I’m your Beti. I’m a little part of you, Maa. We are friends, Maa.
Teach me to be a brave girl, Maa. Whatever happens, I will never be afraid. I have your back, I know. You don’t worry for what society would say. I have bigger dreams. Size of my wings far outsizes their petty mind. Don’t let them tell me that I’m a “Women”. I won’t be a “women”.
I have a billion dreams in my eyes, Maa. Let me open my eyes. Don’t let them kill me. You are not giving birth to a girl, you are giving birth to a life, oh Maa. Whole world may conspire. But I trust you, Maa. You would save me, I know. Would you take stand this time? Or would you silence me like my elder sister, who too screamed like me a year before, this very day, in this very womb?
I am sitting on a time bomb, I feel. Three months I have spent in your secure womb, Maa. No-one could have separated us these three months. But now the fourth months is coming. They would soon find me out. I won’t be able to hide myself any longer. They will see me. I am getting shivers. Save me, oh Maa. Save your Aarohi, meri Maa.
Diffuse this time bomb, Maa. My ears are now deafening with its loud ticking sound. My little soft ears cannot absorb this noise. My pure little heart cannot beat very fast. My new body cannot take more shivers. Save me, Maa. You have all the power. Just stand and say no, Maa. I will stand by you, if no one does. I’m your friend, your Aarohi. I would keep loving you, my promise; no matter even if you kill me.
Do you hear me?
Do you hear, Maa?
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