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Ahmad: Like Your Step Children
 
Do not treat us like your step children, Mother,
Do not treat us like your step children.

You say we bite the breath that feeds
You blame us for infernal incestuous deeds
You call us agents of the villain next door
You say we relate to the other land more
Why do you bunch us harmless blossoms
With the venomous weeds of yester years?
Why the suspicious look in your eyes?
Do not treat us like your step children, Mother,
Do not treat us like your step children.

To the rest of the world you boldly proclaim
We are all born equal to play a fair game.
And here we cannot find a home to rent
For the landlord reads the religion in our name!
(He is willing, he meekly explains,
His old mother and her customs are to blame.)
What nomadic existence, Mother,
Do not treat us like your step children.

In this land we saw the light of dawn,
Here is where we shall wither and die,
Here is where we shall laugh and cry.
Like sand on the bank of a river we lie
Scorching in the sun, thirsty and tired
Even as clear water flows by.
Open your eyes and look at us, Mother,
We are your children, pick us up, Mother.

Treat us not like your step children, Mother,
Treat us not like your step children.

Note: The poem above was written by an Indian poet (Kannada poet to be exact), K.S. Nissar Ahmad. Translated by C.P. Ravikumar. This poem originally appeared in 1981 and is anthologized in the collection "Best poems of 1981."

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