A LOOK AT LIFE-40

 A LOOK AT LIFE-40

BY-SMRUTI RANJAN MOHANTY

    Life in chain

The society 

in which I am born,

the way i was groomed and socialised 

to look at the world 

made me what i am,

a machine that confirms

to the values

of the larger society.

All along I am taught and schooled

to look at the world,

behave, interact and interpret

in a way 

defined by the society

to which I belong.

With hands and legs,

mind and conscience

strongly bound,

I am to live a life

far away from me.

Chained emotion, chained love

caged smile, caged feeling,

patterned behaviour, patterned interaction

i am supposed to live with,

love and endure.

When I first looked at the world

through my own eyes,

I felt it was not my eyes

through which

i was looking at

but through a pair of glasses,

thickly coloured 

by the norms and values of the society.

I never saw the world as it was

but the way I was made to look it at.

The values I inculcated stood in the way

and blurred my vision.

Since birth, I am in chains

chained in a golden chain,

the dos and don'ts

sacred and profane of the society 

to which I belong.

copyright@smrutiranjan