“From Shadows to Stars — A Woman’s Truth”

by – Devinder Kaur

Welcome me, World—I am not new.

I have walked this earth

In silence and storms,

With fire in my bones

And centuries in my womb.

I have lived in the shadows of temples,

Gave birth to saints, to sages, to kings—

I raised the ones you worship now,

Fed them strength in lullaby hymns.

How can you imagine life without me?

Your first breath came through my cries.

Your first warmth was from my skin.

Yet you forget me

As if I were the wind that passed

And not the storm that stayed.

I am Jhansi’s fire,

unsilenced still—My blade was justice, my blood the will.

I stood when kingdoms fell like dust,

And whispered, “Fight,” because I must.

I am Kiran Bedi, with discipline steel,

Kalpana Chawla, a skyward zeal.

I touched the stars with science wings,

Tessy Thomas with Agni’s stings.

No stone left unturned in my quest—

I carved the sky upon my chest.

But even as I rose so high,

The world just watched while I had to die.

Kalpana soared with quiet pride,

Yet honor was not what stayed—it was sighs.

And worse—My heart bleeds, it breaks, it burns—

When justice never truly turns.

When Nirbhaya screamed into the night,

And monsters stole her soul, her light.

A daughter, a dream—just wanting to live—But got a world too cruel to forgive.

She is not alone.

A doctor, young, with healing hands,

Was dragged into hell by broken men—

Her name now whispered in mournful strands,

But justice? Delayed again. Again.

Tell me, world—what do you fear

When a woman walks home late, alone?

Her footsteps echo life and dreams,

Yet she never makes it home.

Welcome me, World—hear me now.

I do not ask for gold or vow.

I want my daughters to walk unshamed,

To speak their names,

And not be blamed.

I want the soil I stood upon

To remember the footprints I carved.

Not statues built when I am gone—

But hands that hold me while I starve.

I am not your metaphor.

Not just your mother.

Not just your pride

When I win a medal, or reach the tide.

I am the soul of this Earth,

And I rise with every breath.

With bangles or books,

With scars or steel,With dreams you tried

To hush or steal.

So welcome me, World.

Not with thrones,But with space to stand,

With justice sewn into your land.

For I am life,The seed, the start—You cannot grow

Without my heart.