Tears Of Sivan Poem by Aniruddha Pathak

Men and women come with areas of greys
And stereo type has for long been their style
Relating them in Mars-and-Venus ways
That place them in an either or of isles.

So, man's supposed his emotions to hold,
That says: ‘mards1' cry, nor yet feel any ‘dard2'—
A plinth stone of culture ancient and old,
It's good, male-female mores are getting blurred.

Boys being taught to be stoic and strong,
To hold a natural welling of eyes,
Behaviour deeming weak is no-no wrong,
A manful look that hides feelings is wise.

Yet, girls can look soft, public tears to shed,
And yes, verbal catharsis just is fine—
Not openly forceful, nor hard headed,
Clearly drawn between them was gender line

Making them less than heart-fully human,
Yea, ardha-narishvar3 is today's man.
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Tears of Sivan, the ISRO chief during the descent of Moon Lander, as happened recently, has opened up good public debate on men crying in public. But it seems to me that ‘Tears of Sivan' has shown that men-openly-crying is no crime, but an achievement of sort.

Mard1: a brave male in Hindi.
Dard2: pain in Hindi.
Ardha-narishvar3: Male is always half female and half male, a Hindu concept based on prakriti and purusha or matter and energy.
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Happenings |19.09.2019|