Dr Fatima Sugarwala is a Lecturer in K.S.N. Kansagra College, Rajkot, Gujarat. Her first poem, "Proclamation" has been published in a poetry anthology "Colours of Life"in the USA. "The New Woman" has an element of personal experience, not only hers but also of many others.

57. Argument

Wild like a bean stalk it grew

Tall and tall it grew

Straight into the giant's den,

Fearful and fast it ran.

Messy like a lie it grew.

Pile upon pile it grew.

Traits it shone anew

Tearful and tame it ran.

Sour like the grapes it grew.

Mile upon mile it grew.

Tastes it left so glum

Soulful and sad it ran

Like acid rain it showered.

Leaving void it flowered.

A tiny seed thus towered,

Like poison ivy.

Building bridges of felony,

Locking gates of harmony.

58. The New Woman

Naturally colonized for long,

Hidden blissfully under that garb

Of stricken mirror- imaging

Never thinking of unveiling

Under illusions of security,

Life sadly drifted by,

Leaving vestiges of the past...

The colonizer's mind -set,

Never was questioned,

Here the colonizer

Was too dear

Too loved, hence

Being colonized

Was an honor

To be cherished

A striking wave of Feminism,

Jerked open my eyes

Seeing myself as the unwanted other

Tried I to find my bearings

Picking up splinters of the past

Emerged I with colossal strength

Casting an image of the New Woman,

Created from the embers of my dead ashes

(This verse was created in the classroom, during one of the sessions of Colonization and Feminism, Dt: October 2001.)