Bimal Koirala
Having heard the news on the radio, she is smiling
A different glow shines on her face today
Her friends asked her
‘Why do you smile Phulmatiya?’
‘See, they say democracy has already arrived in Kathmandu.
Hope it will come for us too.’
There is no railway
But then it will come
Riding a bus
It should not have taken
More than ten or twelve hours
To reach us
Why is democracy
Taking time to reach Phulmatiya’s village?
Many changes have taken place
However Phulmatiya’s chores
Have not decreased
Those who hate her in the village
Have not decreased in number either
Her ordeal has not reduced
Her dream of sending her son
To school ‘in uniform’
Has remained unfulfilled
She kept on being exploited, time and again
For the interests by the usurer in the village
Hasn’t she made a vow at Kali Mandir1 ?
Didn’t she give donation to the leader
By starving herself?
Didn’t she go to cast her vote?
Despite all efforts
Phulmatiya is where she was
And she is ready to live her age
By handing her poverty over to her son
Sometimes Phulmatiya listens
To the radio at Kangali’s shop
For years she has heard
The names of the same big shots
And desperately, she says
These fools never change;
People with the same faces
Come to ask for votes
They speak in the same style
Show big hopes
Now she is ageing
If not they used to come closer to coax
Some would even satisfy their carnal lust
Phulmatiya is speechless
She knows only through Kangalis’s reporting
That the government
Has changed and she remembers
The name of the ruler
Only when she listens to the radio.
Phulmatiya and Phulmatiyas
On whom does the government rest,
They themselves don’t know
That they have become sovereign
I don’t know when
Democracy will arrive
At Phulmatiya’s village
I don’t know who will fetch
Democracy to Phulmatiya’s village
I don’t know who will clothe Phulmatiya
In a garment of democracy
I don’t know
How Phulmatiya will become
A respected
Mother of this nation.
- Referring to the shrine of Goddess Kali where animals are sacrificed
Translated by Govinda Raj Bhattarai