Self-Helping Women Poem by Jagannath rao Adukuri

Young ebony–skinned women
In cheap synthetic saris
With Kajal overflowing the edges
Of pools of laughing eyes
And jasmines in their hair
Came in droves to receive loans
The cacophony of their voices
Drowned the monotone of speeches.


The animator, a midget of a woman,
Herded her flock of giggling women
To a corner of the stage.
Woman after woman came
With folded hands to receive sanctions
The leaders gave fiery speeches.

A banker–poet sitting on the dais
Cleared his emotion-laden throat
Nothing came out of his poetic throat.
The proud women, queens of Sheeba,
Spoke eloquently, confidently
Of economic empowerment,
Marginalization of the money-lender.
Self-help was a magic word;
The husbands battered them?
The wives refuse to be touched
For a fiver by liquor-guzzler husbands.

The poet-banker called it instantly
A successful micro-credit experiment
The illiterate women found him
Vague and amusing, nevertheless,
Flushed with newfound money-power.
The money-lender became a pariah
Surely a revolution is in the making.


*(At a function held to disburse loans to members of village -level self-help women's groups