Virsa

Hypocrisy runs as a strangler fig, Wrapping around their Ta Prohm of words. They lament the waining of our culture. They fervently write poems.

They criticize their daughters for letting the West dilute our traditions, Yet, they turn a blind eye while their sons' tongues are deforested of the trees of our mother tongue. They blame their sisters for "Westernization," Yet they look down on someone for being "too desi." They scold their wives for not keeping Punjabiyat alive, While they change their names from Baljinder to "Bill."

They blame women for not wearing salwar kameez, Yet they themselves sit in their homes wearing dress shirts and slacks. They lament the fact that their daughters do not wear Punjabi livaas, Yet they do not have a single kurta in their wardrobe.

The up-keeping of a culture does not rely on the food cooked by women. The up-keeping of a culture does not rely on the clothes worn by women. Women alone are not responsible for carrying the burden of continuing the Punjabi legacy, Everyone must take an active part.

So, unless, you are willing to put in an equal effort to upkeep our traditions, Your poems of lamenting charkhai and lonely phulkaris are useless. You are not being a part of the solution, You are a very big part of the problem.

Abortion

She could have been a doctor

She could have been a teacher

She could have been the world's best lawyer

She could have been a star on the silver screen

She could have been anything she wanted

Hold up......

Are you on the same page as me?

If you are thinking about an aborted zygote, let me stop you right there.

I am talking about women.

I am talking about the woman

Who had to drop out of school 

Forced to be a mother before she is ready

While her (now ex) boyfriend continues on

Bar hopping to find the next hot hookup.

I am talking about the woman

Who will no longer be able to study to her fullest

Because she is being forced to keep a responsibility

That she cannot afford.

I am talking about the woman

Who has to carry her rapist's burden

For nine long months, or else she faces jail.

I am talking about the woman

Who has to hold a child she brought in

Staring into the spitting image of the baby's father,

The man who raped her on that dark night.

I am talking about the woman 

Who has to face slut shaming

Being called a whore

Having to throw her whole life down the drain

For something she did not plan for.

Damn right I'm pro-choice.

I will stand until my last breath for my sisters

So they have the right to choose what THEY feel right

For their life

For their wellbeing

For their own BODY.

You may claim to be "pro-life"

Bullshit.

Do you care about the life of a woman who has to carry on a pregnancy?

Do you care about the life of a child who has been brought into an unhealthy environment?

Do you care about the life of the baby AFTER it is born?

I see anti-abortionists yell at the top of their lungs about murder,

Yet when there are children in orphanages, or in foster homes,

Being pushed from here to there,

They are silent.

Life does not end at birth. It begins.

That hypocricy shows they are not only anti-choice, but in essence anti-life.

It is a woman's right to choose.

Politics has no place in the uteri of the nations.