R is for Role-Play

Born into the arms of love,

Hopefully a child of love,

Ah, I am being hailed as a daughter,

That surely means that I am loved.

 

I am a daughter I am told,

The one who holds the flag

Of not one but of two families high,

 

I am the sister,

I tie the rakhi to my brother,

Because it is he who is the protector,

But it is I who has to protect,

To shield him, from the parents,

After a brawl at school, or a drunken night out

With his friends;

 

I am the wife to the one,

With whom I am to spend the rest of my life,

Holding fort for him and his family alike,

 

Then I am a mother,

Giving birth to new life,

Protecting it nurturing it,

Hoping for the best for the rest of her life;

 

And, then, I lie in the bed,

Ready to embrace thy death,

Satisfied that I have played all the roles,

(hoping) really well;

I close my eyes,

To reflect the past,

To see me playing the roles;

Of daughter, sister,

Wife, and mother;

 

And then I jolt back up,

Only to realize,

That all my life,

I was nothing, but a ‘role’,

In someone else’s life;

 

Who was I? Where was I?

The woman who loved to dance,

The one who had dreams to lead,

The next super power;

The one, who thought, that,

There was no end to possibilities;

Till of course, came the game to role play;

 

Playing all the roles only too well,

Losing yourself, immersing yourself,

In characters assigned to me;

Forgetting who I was, and now,

Not believing,

Who I am!

 

What is life, but role play,

The Seven Stages, called by

Shakespeare;

 

Don’t empower us to freedom;

Just empower us to believe,

That,

There is more to us;

Than,

Mere role plays!