
My school friends are planning
A camping and rafting trip.
We start working on the details.
I get in touch with my cousin who went there last year.
He’s excited for me.
This is going to be the best, he says.
Go, have fun.
I will have a friend in the area
Arrange your local bookings.
He gives me his itinerary.
I relay it to my friends.
We squeal in the voicenotes
And decide to talk to our parents
For the upcoming trip.
Maa comes home and
I ask for her opinion about the getaway.
She says, I am not sure about this.
You are planning on going camping.
How safe are the camps?
Do you have any insider information?
Has anybody you know been to it before?
I understand her questions.
I get her worries.
She’s worried for her child
Going alone to wild forests and galloping rivers.
Which parent wouldn’t be?
I am about to reassure her
With my ex-roommate’s wonderful experience
With the School Group in those hills
A couple of years back.
I am about to remind her about my cousin’s bright, smiling face in His numerous Facebook pictures.
And then she says,
You are a group of girls afterall.
Alone in those camps?
How safe are they, she repeats.
I sit there, stunned.
I am not sure how to proceed.
My mother isn’t worried for her child afterall.
She’s worried for her daughter.
I don’t answer.
I am not sure if there is a right answer to her question.
We are a group of girls.
It’s a camp.
In the forest.
It’s going to be dark.
There will be shadows.
There might be grabbing hands.
There might be silent screams.
The river will be gushing right by the tents.
Loud and ferocious.
What if something happens?
Nobody will ever know.
Not until it’s too late.
She doesn’t say any of it.
She doesn’t ask me anything more.
I don’t bring it up again.
There’s nothing left to say.
I go to my room
And start writing poems about
Dreams of a safe society and equal opportunities.
It’s a deferred dream.
I will have to wait a while.
A long while.
It’s not safe and
There’s no equality afterall.