English Lessons

By Sunidhi Gawri

A fourteen-year-old girl wants to study
So, I teach her the past, present and the future
With hope that these tenses will make her write her own time
I ask her if she’ll leave school after the 10th class
In her denial, there’s a spirit
And eighteen-year-old me is left pleased
So, on my floral pink bed sheets we sit
And the poem ‘The Road Not Taken’ is opened by her
I remember the poem like it was yesterday and voice my love for it
She understands not a single word as I read but I offer an explanation in Hindi
She’s eager to learn!
But to speak in the language of the west, she fails
I seize her hand and laugh with her
Even though she speaks wrong, she writes beautifully, thinks beautifully
Maybe she’ll stay and work for us
I’ll teach her everyday while her mother feeds off the money she makes
‘She does the chores somewhat wrong, so I’ll teach her if she stays’
My kind mother puts forth the idea
But to her mother it’s not the same
Because she has got a home to look after too and the daughter’s now in teenage
She must learn to cook, to serve, to raise
And all the women before me, I hear them say
“We’re in a man’s world, where having a daughter who's educated is not a proud claim”
But she’s brave not to leave her books behind for a housemaid job
At fourteen, she’s much more stronger than I ever was!