आमची मुंबई ?

An empire among the garbage dumps,

An empire among the holes and bumps.

Where no girl can walk after ten,

Where all streets, dominated by men.

Where smoke and dirt is what we breathe,

Where a want turns into a need.

Where ripped clothes is no fashion, but a part of livelihood,

What happened to the city of our childhood?

Women scream at night, beaten, when their ‘dears’ comes home woozy,

Conditions like these, we don’t get to be choosy.

Murder, theft, rapes, suicides, bribes,

How can we live in such lies?

The city entangled with ‘the blamed’ and ‘the mourned’,

No, don’t call it an empire but ‘the garden of thorns’.

~ Parnika Chaturvedi

XI-G